Hundreds of Palestinians homeless after Israel razed houses

Some 700 Palestinians were made homeless this Thursday after Israeli army bulldozers razed their houses in the southern Gaza Strip.

Army bulldozers and armoured vehicles rumbled into the Rafah refugee camp near Gaza's border with Egypt early on Thursday, scaring Palestinians out of homes which were then demolished. The army said the homes had been used to fire at its soldiers.

Witnesses said the bulldozers razed about 30 buildings, but Isa Qarra, an official with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said as many as 45 homes may have been destroyed. The army gave no figure.

Huge piles of rubble, twisted metal, wood and broken furniture were left in the mud where homes once stood. Weeping women and men and children sifted through the rubble trying to recover their belongings in the cold and rain.

The Gaza-based Palestinian human rights centre said "700 Palestinians lost their home after the buildings were destroyed," in the most important operation of the kind.

A non-governmental organization says over 900 Palestinians have died since the Palestinian intifadah began in September 2000.