Israeli land NGO “Regavim” has revealed that the house of the terrorist who infiltrated the Jewish town of Anatot on Saturday and was subsequently killed, was an illegal structure that had already been slated for demolition.

The family of the thirteen-year-old terrorist came from the town of Ya’ata which is located inside the Palestinian Authority in the hills south of Hevron. They later moved to the Arab town of Anata close to Jerusalem. The area of land that the family built their home upon is privately owned and therefore the structure is illegal. The land lay fallow until 2008, when numerous illegal buildings were constructed on the land. The construction was done without the permission of the owners and seemingly was an attempted land grab. 

Regavim sent an urgent letter to the Civil Administration on Monday illustrating the illegality of the buildings, and demanded that the structures, which include a metal scrap heap, be torn down. In addition to the illegality of the buildings, Regavim added that the scrap heap is polluting the land.

Moreover, as the terrorist lived in one of those homes, that home will be slated for demolition as well. Over Arad, the head of the Judea and Samaria department at Regavim stated that “we have recently witnessed that it takes a prolonged process for security forces to properly map and demolish the house of a terrorist. In this specific case we are dealing with an illegal structure that was built on privately owned land. We can destroy it today even, and it would be nice to do it as early as possible.”