Source: BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Gaza political storm hits Israel

The Israeli justice minister has infuriated cabinet colleagues by saying the army offensive in Gaza reminded him of his family's woes in World War II.

Lapid's Shinui party is the prime minister's main coalition partner

The UN estimates at least 1,600 people have lost their homes

Source: BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Clashes as gaza buries its dead

Thousands of Palestinians have attended funerals for 16 people killed during an Israeli raid in Gaza, the biggest in recent years.

About 40 Palestinians have died in the incursion

Some of the worst damage in Tel Sultan was to farming infrastructure

Source: BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | UN man highlights Rafah aid needs

A senior UN official says massive assistance is needed for people who have had their homes destroyed by the Israeli army in Gaza.

The girl was walking with a group of older children when killed

Source: BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Palestinian health crisis warning

(By Imogen Foulkes- BBC correspondent in Geneva)
The WHO has warned the health situation in the West Bank and Gaza has reached a critical point and could slide into collapse without further assistance.

Source: BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | 'I have lost everything'

Israeli troops have destroyed dozens of homes in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip. Israeli restrictions are making it hard to reach the area, but the BBC's Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston has been contacting people there on their mobile phones.

The UN says 1,000 Palestinians have been made homeless

Thousands have lost their homes in Gaza in the last three years

Multi-storey buildings are among those destroyed in the operation

"One thing that strikes you is that so many people said they had their homes bulldozed while they were in the houses."
-The UN's Peter Hansen

The UN's construction programme is being outpaced

Source: BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Gaza raids 'leave 1,000 homeless"

Homes have been bulldozed almost every day since the start of May

Israeli military raids in Gaza this month have left 1,100 Palestinians homeless, a United Nations agency says.

About 130 homes have been razed in what the UN agency for Palestinian refugees says is one of the most intense periods of destruction for years.

The group says Israel is meting out illegal collective punishment after the killing of a settler and her four daughters in Gaza a week ago.

The Israeli army described the UN figures as highly exaggerated.

A spokesman said the demolitions were not arbitrary, and were only carried out on buildings they knew to have been used by militants to attack Israeli targets.

'Wrong place'

Israeli troops demolished 13 Palestinian houses on Monday - a day after gunmen ambushed Jewish settlers holding an outdoor memorial service for Gaza settler Tali Hatuel and her daughters.

In all, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said 131 homes had been demolished or wrecked beyond repair this month alone in army operations against militants who launch attacks inside Israel.

It described the action as "one of the most intense periods of destruction" since the Palestinian intifada or uprising against Israel began in September 2000.

UNRWA's commissioner general, Peter Hansen, issued a statement condemning the killings of the female settler and her four children, which correspondents say has provoked extreme tension in Gaza.

But he went on to say that Palestinians as a whole in certain areas were suffering the reprisals in a form of collective punishment forbidden by international law.

"The overwhelming majority of the more than 17,000 Palestinians who have lost their homes in Gaza since the start of the intifada [the uprising which began in September 2000] have been guilty of nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.

Settlers were pinned down for about 20 minutes in Sunday's ambush

Israeli bulldozers flattened a row of homes along the road and a four-storey block of flats was blown up on Monday, leaving about 75 Palestinians homeless, reports said.

"They left nothing for us," said one, a member of the Abu Hadaf clan which occupied most of the buildings.

"The bulldozers are uprooting trees, demolishing our houses," he said.

The Israeli army said the houses had been destroyed because gunmen had used them for cover.

Dramatic footage

It came a day after gunmen ambushed some 300 Jewish settlers attending a heavily-guarded service on the Kissufim road near Gush Katif settlement for Tali Hatuel and her children.

No Israelis were hurt in Sunday's ambush, but settlers were left crouching behind vehicles as shooting continued for 20 minutes.

Mrs Hatuel was ambushed on 2 May on her way to Israel to lobby voters in a Likud party referendum on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate the settlements in Gaza.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack.

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Source: BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Israel faces human shield claim

Activists claim Mohammed was tied to the jeep by police.

Israeli human rights activists have accused border police of using a 13-year-old Palestinian as a human shield.

Rabbis for Human Rights say that Mohammed Badwan was tied by police to a jeep during a recent demonstration in the West Bank village of Bidou.

The police apparently hoped this would stop Palestinians from throwing stones during a protest against Israel's West Bank barrier.

Israel's Supreme Court banned the use of human shields in 2002.

Rabbis for Human Rights also say that the boy was beaten by Israeli police before being arrested.

Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said: "It's unclear what happened, we do not expose civilians to physical damage willingly."

The case is to be investigated by the Israeli Justice Ministry.

'Scared'

Mohammed later told the Reuters news agency: "I was scared when they got me at first, I thought they would put me in prison. I was scared a stone would hit me."

Mohammed's father, Saeed, said: "When I saw him on the hood of the jeep, my whole mind went crazy - he was shivering from fear."

Rabbis for Human Rights director Rabbi Arik Ascherman was detained by police when he tried to intervene to help Mohammed.

"It is very sad to see that we have come to this position. There is disbelief," Rabbi Ascherman said.

'Excessive Force'

Palestinian activists in Bidou, a focal point of recent protests against the West Bank barrier, say that the Israeli authorities are increasingly using excessive force to disperse stone throwers.

Medics say four Palestinians have been shot dead this year during violent clashes at protests against the barrier.

Israeli officials say the barrier is necessary to prevent suicide bombings iniside Israel, while Palestinians say the barrier is in reality a land-grab intended to annex West Bank territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

Shot

The use of human shields was banned after an incident in which soldiers forced the neighbour of a suspected militant to knock on his door and deliver their demands. The militant shot and killed the man.

Marwan Dalal, of Israeli Arab rights organisation Adalah, said there was evidence that despite the Supreme Court ban, the use of human shields by Israeli security forces was continuing.

He it said it was more common for soldiers to use Palestinians as human shield during military operations rather than against stone throwers.

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