Tel Aviv - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the army Friday to prepare injunctions to demolish the home of the East Jerusalem Palestinian who ran amok with a bulldozer in Jerusalem Wednesday, killing there people and wounding around 40 others.

Barak also ordered the demolition of the house of another East Jerusalem Palestinian who in March entered a Jewish religious school and gunned down eight students, Israel Army Radio reported.

The defence minister issued the order after Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz said there was no legal prohibition against the demolitions in areas under Israeli sovereignty, although he added that such a move would give rise to both international and local obstacles.

He did not specify what the obstacles would be.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem after capturing it in the 1967 Middle East war, and considers it part of the Jewish state.

Israel has been grappling with the question of whether to demolish the home of the bulldozer driver since the rampage in West Jerusalem early Wednesday afternoon.

Hussam Duwiyat, a resident of the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sur Baher, took a bulldozer from the construction site where he worked and went on the rampage along one of West Jerusalem's main traffic thoroughfares.

He killed three and injured at least 40 when he ploughed into cars and flipped a passenger bus onto its side before being shot dead after police and a security guard had failed to subdue him.

Israel had in the past demolished the homes of militants involved in attacks against its citizens, but many questioned not only the legality of such an act, but also its deterrent value.

The lawyer for Duwiyat's family, Shimon Kokos, said Thursday that Hussam had not carried out a "terrorist attack," but may have acted out of temporary insanity. He said Hussam had not belonged to any militant organization, but was a drugs and property felon. (dpa)