The Nablus home of the Hamas terrorist accused of killing a British-Israeli woman and her two daughters in an attack last year was blown up in an overnight operation.

Palestinian media outlets shared pictures and videos on Monday morning of what they said was the home of Moaz al-Masri on the fourth floor of an apartment building in the West Bank city, reduced to a shell. Other floors appeared to be intact and undamaged.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that IDF troops evacuated some 10 families from apartments near the al-Masri home before laying explosives and blowing up the apartment.

The military did not immediately comment on the reports of the demolition.

According to the IDF, al-Masri was part of a cell that opened fire at Lucy Dee, 48, and her daughters Maia and Rina Dee, aged 20 and 15, as they drove through the northern Jordan Valley on April 7, 2023. The daughters were declared dead at the scene of the attack while Lucy was rushed to hospital in critical condition and died three days later.

Al-Masri and the other two members of his cell, Hassan Qatani and Ibrahim Jabr, were killed in an Israeli military raid in early May, following a lengthy manhunt. Hamas said that the three were members of the terror group and claimed responsibility for the attack.

The three members of the Dee family were dual Israeli-British nationals who lived in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, just south of Jerusalem, after moving to Israel some eight years ago.

The IDF first published pictures of soldiers mapping al-Masri’s home for demolition in June last year after first mapping Qatani’s. At the time, it said that “the mappings were carried out for the purpose of examining the possibility of demolishing the homes.”

As a matter of policy, Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly terror attacks as well as their accomplices. The efficacy of the policy has been hotly debated even within the Israeli security establishment, while human rights activists denounce the practice as unjust collective punishment.

The demolition process generally takes several months, as the home needs to be mapped out, the High Court must address potential appeals by the family, and security forces often wait for an optimal time to enter Palestinian cities or neighborhoods for the operation.

At the same time that IDF troops operated in Nablus to demolish al-Masri’s home overnight, 11 vehicles, including several minibuses, carrying Jewish pilgrims entered the Palestinian city to visit Joseph’s Tomb without prior military coordination.

At one point during the night, the pilgrims exited the vehicles in order to pray, sing and dance in the middle of the street, Hebrew media reported.

It was unclear if the group reached the shrine before IDF troops arrived at the scene to escort them out of the city.

At least one Palestinian gunman opened fire toward the vehicles as they left Nablus but there were no reports of injuries.

Joseph’s Tomb, believed by some to be the final resting place of the biblical patriarch Joseph, is located inside Area A of the West Bank, which is officially under complete Palestinian Authority control, though the Israeli military regularly enters to conduct security operations.

Busloads of Orthodox Jews visit Joseph’s Tomb under IDF protection on a monthly basis, and the pilgrimages almost always spark violent clashes with Palestinian locals.

The IDF bars Israeli citizens from entering Palestinian cities without prior authorization and protection, and some criticize the monthly visits by the pilgrims as an unnecessary provocation that places Israeli soldiers at risk.

The IDF confirmed on Monday morning that the pilgrims were removed from the Palestinian city without casualties and stressed that entry into Area A without prior coordination is “prohibited and dangerous for Israelis.”

Separately overnight, Wafa reported a Palestinian teen had been shot and killed during an Israel Defense Forces operation near Ramallah.

The report said the 16-year-old was killed during a raid on the al-Am’ari refugee camp.

There was no immediate comment from the IDF.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.