Israel to get remote-control bulldozers

JERUSALEM - Israeli forces will soon be able to carry out demolition of Palestinian buildings by remote control, an Israeli high-tech concern said.

Palestinians and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, condemn demolitions as collective punishment that has made thousands of Palestinian civilians homeless.

The Technion Institute of Technology said in a statement it had adapted US-made, armoured D-9 bulldozers to operate without drivers and they would be deployed by the Israeli army "in the very near future". The army declined to comment.

Israel views the bulldozing or dynamiting of family homes of Palestinian suicide bombers or houses under which arms smuggling tunnels have been found as essential security and deterrent measures against a three-year-old Palestinian revolt.

Several Palestinian civilians have been killed and dozens injured inside or next to demolished houses, Palestinian officials and medics say.

The Israeli army says it always tries to get civilians out of harm's way before a house demolition.

Abu Abir, a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees -- a militant umbrella group -- said remote-controlled bulldozers would not stop his group from targeting Israeli soldiers.

"We will deal with their new bulldozers and we will develop our methods to destroy them," he told Reuters in Gaza on Friday. "In the past, fighters used to snipe at the bulldozer drivers. Now we will have to bomb them and blow them up completely."

Some Palestinian gunmen have been killed inside demolished houses where they had holed up to avoid capture and waged gunbattles with Israeli troops before bulldozers moved in.

"Today, bulldozer operators are exposed to high risks when they demolish buildings in which terrorists are hiding," the institute quoted an Israeli army officer as saying.

A camera attached to the adapted D-9 bulldozer transmits pictures to a remote control box with which an operator can control the vehicle's movements, Technion said.

Israel has for decades used remote-control military devices, including grenade launchers and drone surveillance aircraft that pinpoint wanted militants on the ground before an air strike.

It is renowned for cutting-edge military technology and has exported some of it.

- REUTERS