10/07/2003

Demolitions often occur at night with little or no warning. Israeli military units, usually accompanied by tanks and helicopters, enter Palestinian areas to destroy one or more houses. In some cases the demolished buildings belong to the families of suicide bombers, suspected militants, or Palestinians detained in Israeli jails. Sometimes explosives rather than bulldozers are used to destroy property, thereby creating widespread collateral damage. Regardless of the method used, furniture and personal belongings can rarely be salvaged, leaving families homeless, impoverished, traumatized, and in the case of refugees, displaced again.