Israeli Court Upholds Right to Destroy Homes Without Warning
The Israeli Supreme Court today upheld the military's right to demolish the homes of Palestinian terror suspects without warning, in the face of an assertion by a Palestinian official that the practice would only "widen the cycle of violence."

In new military action today, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants on the West Bank, including one suspected of plotting a suicide bombing last month.


The Supreme Court rejected a petition by 35 Palestinian families whose homes are scheduled for demolition that they be given 48 hours' notice, allowing them time to try to stop the actions with a court order.

In recent days, reviving a practice abandoned several years ago, Israeli troops demolished nine homes on the West Bank, and Israel is preparing to banish the relatives of suicide attackers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian labor minister, Ghassan Khatib, said the practice of demolition violated international law and that the ruling supporting it widened the scope of Israel's punishment of ordinary Palestinians.

"This is only going to deepen the hatred and consequently widen the cycle of violence," he said.

A three-judge panel ruled that allowing court challenges to the demolitions could put soldiers' lives in danger because Palestinians would be able to booby-trap the houses or set up ambushes. The ruling leaves it up to the military to decide whether or not to allow hearings in some cases.

The court ruling and the new violence came after three Palestinian attacks on Sunday and early Monday killed 13 people. In response the Israeli government banned Palestinian travel through the northern West Bank, further tightening already stringent restrictions.

…9.3 percent of Palestinians between the ages of 6 months and just under 5 years were suffering moderate to severe malnutrition. That is more than four times the rate found in what the researchers called "a normally nourished population."

Another 13.2 percent of Palestinian children were found to be chronically malnourished, meaning their growth was stunted. Acute and chronic malnutrition were found to be more severe in Gaza than on the West Bank.

The study, based on a random sample of 1,000 households, was conducted by Johns Hopkins University and CARE, in coordination with two Palestinian institutions, Al Quds University and the Global Management Consulting Group.

In response to the finding, the Palestinian health minister, Riad Zanoun, declared a state of emergency.

Previous studies of nutrition in the Palestinian territories were less scientific and less broad, making it difficult to determine precisely whether malnutrition has been increasing or at what rate.

But the researchers said the problem appeared to be on the rise. The study attributed families' difficulty affording food mostly to the dire state of the Palestinian economy, and only secondarily to the closings as such.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/06/international/06CND-MIDE.html