Friends and family mourn at the funeral of Yotam Ovadia at the Har Hamenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem on July 27, 2018. Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

JNS.org – The family of Muhammad Yousef, who infiltrated the town of Adam in July and stabbed Yotam Ovadia to death, received notice that their house will be demolished by the Israel Defense Forces.

On July 26, Yotam Ovadia, a 31-year-old father-of-two, was stabbed multiple times in the upper body by 17-year-old Yousef, who had infiltrated Ovadia’s hometown of Adam, 11 miles from his own home of Kobar in Samaria. Yousef attacked and seriously wounded another resident of the community, but was ultimately stopped by a third man who shot Yousef dead.

Following the attack, Yousef’s family home was raided by the IDF. On Monday, the military issued formal notification to the family that their home would be destroyed. The Yousefs will have the opportunity to appeal to Israel’s High Court of Justice, although the body has rarely issued injunctions against demolition in such cases.

Israeli government officials have in the past suggested that home demolitions are meant to provide an economic deterrent to terrorism, which the Palestinian Authority has been accused of encouraging by paying salaries to attackers and their families. Yousef was described as a “martyr” by an official PA newspaper the day after he killed Ovadia, suggesting that his family will be financially rewarded for the attack.