As Israel destroys lives and homes in Gaza, without regard for civilians or hospitals or any other damn thing, the IDF has returned to a policy of punitive demolitions in the Occupied West Bank that displaced thousands of innocent Palestinians over the years.
According to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem:
B’Tselem finds the state’s position unreasonable and believes it is meant only to lend legal sanction to the Israeli government’s interest in adopting draconian measures, including collective punishment, in response to the charged public atmosphere surrounding the abduction and killing of three yeshiva students. Despite being extreme, the HCJ (High Court of Justice) nearly always sanctions such measures.
A policy of punitive home demolition is fundamentally wrong, irrespective of effectiveness. It contravenes basic moral standards by punishing people for the misdeeds of others.
One of the reasons that the policy had been 'controversial' (aside from the obviously grotesque injustice of punishing people for the alleged crimes of others) was that the policy was clearly an abject failure.
Between 2001 and 2005, Israel’s military demolished 664 houses belonging to suspected Palestinian militants and their families, according to B’Tselem. The policy was abandoned in 2005 after the military determined that the demolitions bred resentment and inspired fresh recruits, helping fuel the Palestinian insurgency.
I mean, who could have seen that coming?
So...it'll work this time because, erm...search me; perhaps the brutal cretins who plan Israeli policy imagine that this time, instead of '...helping fuel the Palestinian insurgency...', it will, instead, fill the air with kittens and rainbows and the Palestinians will get the message and just leave.
Yeah. Good luck with that.