ISRAEL: Israel has systematically destroyed thousands of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip town of Rafah to create a buffer zone on the border with Egypt in defiance of international law, according to a Human Rights Watch report released yesterday.
The group said 16,000 people had been made homeless in Rafah during raids and incursions over the last four years and that the Israeli Defence Forces had exaggerated the threat posed by weapons smuggling tunnels under the Rafah-Egypt border.
As the report was released, violence there continued. Two Hamas militants breached the new security fence along Gaza's border with Israel and were shot dead by troops, military sources said. Two other militants were killed while trying to plant a bomb near a Jewish settlement in an occupied part of southern Gaza, while another militant was killed, and a soldier hurt, elsewhere.
The 135-page report did not include figures for the latest Israeli incursion into the northern Gaza Strip, in which over 100 Palestinians were killed. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza City, at least 50 houses were demolished during the 17-day incursion that ended this weekend.
The New York-based group said there was no dispute that Palestinian militants had used tunnels to smuggle arms, but "evidence strongly suggests the IDF is using their existence as a pretext to justify home demolitions and illegally expand the 'buffer zone'".
It called on foreign governments, particularly the US, to ensure Israel abides by international law and demanded that it pay compensation.
The destruction in Gaza continues even as the government of Ariel Sharon, Israeli prime minister, prepares to evacuate some 8,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip next year.
Israel will then retain control over Gaza's borders and air space as well as the buffer zone, which the army has recommended doubling in width.
Human Rights Watch said the IDF could do more to install seismic sensors and radars to stop the tunnels. Demolishing houses over entrance shafts did nothing to destroy the tunnels and allowed the Palestinians to build new entrances.