JERUSALEM: The Israeli military says troops have demolished the home of a Palestinian attacker who stabbed an Israeli teenage girl to death.

The military says the home of 17-year-old Mohammed Tarayreh in the West Bank town of Bani Naim near Hebron was demolished early on Monday.

Tarayreh stabbed 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel to death while she slept in her bed in the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement in late June. Tarayreh was killed at the scene.

It was one of the most brutal attacks in the nearly yearlong wave of Palestinian assaults that has killed 34 Israelis. Ariel, a dual Israeli-American citizen, was the youngest victim. About 200 Palestinians have been killed, mostly attackers.

Israel says house demolitions are an effective deterrent against attacks. Critics counter the tactic amounts to collective punishment.