Israeli bulldozers in the Gaza Strip destroyed eight houses and part of a mosque today, Palestinian sources said.
Four of the houses were in the southern town of Rafah in a district near the border that is the site of the majority of Israeli demolition.
The border is one of the flashpoints of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the army has been demolishing dozens of houses in the sector that it suspects hide the entrances to tunnels used by militants to smuggle arms from Egypt.
Bulldozers also destroyed four more houses and part of a mosque in the northern town of Beit Hanun.
Israeli troops entered the northern Gaza Strip last Thursday morning in a bid to further dismantle the infrastructure of militant groups and prevent rocket attacks on Israeli targets, many of which are launched from fields around the area.
Since last August, the army has dynamited over 200 houses in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, a policy denounced by human rights organisations as constituting collective punishment.
AFP