Israel claims that the policy of destroying Palestinian houses has "helped deter some attacks"

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, December 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Around 200 Israeli activists from the Peace Now movement demonstrated Sunday in the southern West Bank city of Al-Khalil ( Hebron ) against plans to extend Jewish settlements in the overwhelmingly Palestinian city.

The demonstrators, accompanied by two Knesset members, gathered at the site of a settlement outpost which was dismantled by the Israeli army on Thursday, December 19, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

They carried banners calling the settlement of Hebron a "disaster" and slamming Israel for destroying Palestinian houses in the city.

The houses, abandoned by their residents amid ongoing unrest in the flashpoint city, overlooked a road which Jewish settlers want to see turned into a well-guarded promenade linking Jewish enclaves in the city with the large settlement of Kiryat Arba on its eastern edge.

The road would give the 6,500 residents of the settlement easier access to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a shrine sacred to both Jews and Muslims in the heart of the ancient city.

Members of Kiryat Arba set up an illegal outpost on private Palestinian land on November 20, but the army pulled down the makeshift structures last week.

After an ambush by Palestinian resistance fighters, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a long-time champion of the settlement movement, said territorial continuity must be established between the enclaves and Kiryat Arba.

Around 600 Jews live in the enclave around the Tomb, surrounded by Israeli soldiers separating them from the 120,000 Palestinian population of the city.

The Israeli army had initially banned the Peace Now demonstration but later issued a permit after the anti-settlement group received backing from the Israeli Supreme Court.

The army also destroyed the newly built house of a Palestinian man near Kiryat Arba which had allegedly been built without planning permission from the Israeli authorities, Palestinian witnesses said.

Meanwhile, in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Israeli army staged a fresh raid, destroying alleged Palestinian "militants" homes.

On  Saturday, December 21, the Israeli army sent troops and armored vehicles into the southern town of Rafah , on the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt , to dynamite the homes of two Palestinians, Palestinian security sources said.

The Israeli forces moved one kilometer into the town, demolishing the homes of two members of the Islamic Jihad movement and damaging three others, the sources said.

One of the houses demolished belonged to Ziad Abed el-Al, a member of Islamic Jihad armed wing.

Israeli forces split the Gaza Strip in three by re-imposing roadblocks on the main north-south road after the shooting.

The other destroyed house was said to belong to his brother Mohammed, killed in April 2000 in an anti-Israeli attack.

Israel claims that the policy of destroying Palestinian houses has "helped deter some attacks," but critics slam it as collective punishment, as the Palestinian families are often left homeless.