Bulldozers poised to hit Palestinian homes

GAZA - Israel's Army chief, Moshe Yaalon, yesterday threatened to destroy hundreds of Palestinian refugee homes after the Supreme Court cleared the way for demolitions in a flashpoint Israeli-held corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border.

Within hours of the court ruling, dozens of Israeli armoured vehicles were spotted massing outside Rafah, and hundreds of Palestinians fled their homes near the "Philadelphi" buffer zone, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said.

Rafah was the site of two deadly ambushes that killed seven soldiers last week.

Yaalon told the Cabinet "hundreds of houses" believed to be concealing tunnels or to have been used by gunmen had been marked for destruction.

Hundreds of Palestinians fled their homes after learning of the decision, which threatened to render thousands more homeless.

At least 200 homes were emptied in Rafah along the border with Egypt, witnesses said.

"I don't know what to take. I will start with clothes or the refrigerator or the television," said Abed al-Majid Abu Shamala, 52, preparing to flee a four-storey dwelling.

Israeli officials said there were plans to widen the "Philadelphi" buffer zone to make it safer to patrol and less accessible to militants who smuggle weapons in by tunnels from Egypt.

As well as flattening homes, Israeli officials were weighing a plan to spend millions of dollars on digging a wide canal in the buffer area of southern Gaza, and possibly to flood it to block weapons smugglers, a political source said.

Israeli helicopters yesterday fired missiles at an office of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and that of another faction in Gaza City.

Medics said the Fatah building and offices of the Democratic Front faction were empty at the time of the early morning strike and there were no casualties.

An Israeli military source said the missiles struck "two targets linked to terror activity" in the raid close to the site of an ambush.

Elsewhere in Gaza, Israeli soldiers shot dead at least three Palestinians suspected of seeking to infiltrate into Israel to plant explosives, Israeli media reports said.

The threatened house demolitions drew immediate world criticism.

The United Nations said Israel had made more than 12,000 people homeless in Rafah since the start of a Palestinian uprising in September 2000, and that more demolitions would be in grave breach of international law.

UN relief officials estimated that Israeli armoured bulldozers levelled more than 80 buildings in Rafah recently, leaving about 1100 Palestinians homeless. The Army said it demolished structures that provided cover for armed men.

"We are extremely alarmed that even more demolitions are planned," said UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) chief Peter Hansen.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie accused the Israeli court ruling of permitting "ethnic cleansing crimes and collective punishment of innocent civilians".

The American Secretary of State Colin Powell told a news conference in Jordan the United States opposed the wholesale bulldozing of houses in Rafah.

But he sought to persuade Qurie to "seize the opportunity" and accept an Israeli plan to quit Gaza, which Israeli officials expect Sharon to resubmit with minor alterations after his rightist party voted it down.

- REUTERS