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A Palestinian boy collecting toys from a house demolished by Israeli authorities in east Jerusalem on Monday. (Reuters)
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Last update - 00:00 31/12/2004
Panel to examine IDF policy of home demolitions
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon has appointed a committee to examine the IDF policy of home demolitions in the West Bank.
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The committee will examine the effectiveness of demolitions carried out for the purposes of punishment and deterrence as well as those carried out for tactical purposes.

In demolitions whose stated aim is deterrence, but which also serve as punishment, the homes of the families of terrorists - mainly suicide bombers - are destroyed, primarily in the West Bank. Tactical demolition is carried out, among other reasons, to destroy houses used for shooting at settlements or military outposts, thereby increasing the distance between the sources of the shooting and the targets.

The IDF is also conducting a separate investigation of the recent demolition of 25 houses in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, which took place without the required authorization.

The army has destroyed about 270 houses, mostly in the West Bank, between the summer of 2002 - when the government decided to renew home demolitions in the territories - and the summer of 2004, according to the IDF. At first only the homes of suicide bombers' families were demolished, but later on the homes of those involved in shooting attacks were also destroyed.

IDF officials disagree over the effectiveness of home demolitions. The destruction of suicide bombers' homes is intended to deter future would-be terrorists from carrying out their plans, out of concern for their families' welfare. But Major General (Res.) Yitzhak Eitan, who held the position of GOC Central Command during the first two years of the intifada, says the demolitions arouse only feelings of revenge.

In addition, an internal IDF report summarizing 1,000 days of the fighting that erupted in the summer of 2003 concluded that there is no proof that home demolitions deter future attacks, and found that the number of terror attacks had actually risen in the months following the renewed implementation of the demolition policy
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