Watch: Israel demolishes Palestinian homes as punishment

A day after two Palestinian men killed five Israelis at an Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem, Israeli authorities made reprisals, demolishing the home of a Palestinian involved in an earlier attack at a tram stop.

"The home of the terrorist, who killed an Israeli baby and a young woman on October 22 in a tram station in Jerusalem was destroyed in Silwan," the Israeli military said in a statement.

Shaludi's family maintains he had lost control of the car and accidentally veered into the crowd. They walked through the rubble of their blasted apartment soon after it was destroyed. Three other families living in the same building had to evacuate the premises. The entire neighborhood was cordoned off by police, reports al Jazeera.

The demolitions, which punish the families of Palestinian men who are often already deceased or in custody, are controversial. According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, between October 2001 and January 2005, 664 houses belonging to suspected militants in the Palestinian territories were destroyed, leaving 4,182 people homeless.