The Israeli occupation army demolished eight Palestinian houses in the Gaza Strip overnight and two belonging to Palestinian activists  in the West Bank, Palestinian security sources told AFP.In the Brazil neighbourhood of Rafah refugee camp, the occupation army bulldozed five houses near the border with Egypt, the sources said Thursday.In the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, another three houses were demolished.

Beit Hanun has often been used as a launching pad for activists firing home-made rockets over the border with Israel.

Meanwhile in the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, occupation troops dynamited a house which belonged to a activist from the resistance Islamic group Hamas who was killed a year ago in armed clashes with the occupation army.

In the southern West Bank near Hebron, occupation troops also destroyed the house of a activist who blew himself up last April in Jerusalem, killing six Israelis, security sources on both sides said.

The Israeli occupation army has bulldozed or dynamited some 130 houses in the West Bank since August, when it launched its demolition policy which human rights groups have condemned as collective punishment.

However, it has been razing Palestinian houses in Rafah for much longer, creating an ever-widening strip of rubble which serves as a buffer zone between the first row of inhabited houses and Israeli-controlled border posts.

The occupation army charges that these houses shelter Palestinian activists as well as the entrances to tunnels, which Israel says are used by Palestinians to smuggle arms from Egypt.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Israeli bulldozer demolishes a Palestinian hou