Israel's destruction of Palestinian homes in the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza Strip has spawned a new round of international criticism and even sparked a row inside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet.

Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid condemned the latest demolition in a cabinet meeting on Sunday by appearing to compare the raid to Nazi atrocities against Jews during the Holocaust.

"I saw on television an old woman picking through the rubble of her house in Rafah, looking for her medicine, and she reminded me of my grandmother who was expelled from her home during the Holocaust," Lapid was quoted as saying.

Touching a raw nerve in Israel, this is the strongest criticism yet voiced by a senior Israeli cabinet member.

Lapid also called for an end to the home demolitions that have left as many as 1,650 Palestinians homeless in the last 10 days, describing such policies as inhumane and liable to lead to war crimes charges against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

Israeli troops launched their largest raids in the Rafah area on Gaza's southern border with Egypt last Tuesday in what the army described as a hunt for tunnels used to smuggle weapons in from nearby Egypt.

The operations, which killed at least 42 Palestinians, have been roundly condemned by the international community.

The 15-member United Nations Security Council voted last Wednesday unanimously -- with only the United States abstaining -- to adopt a resolution expressing grave concern regarding the humanitarian situation of Palestinians made homeless in the Rafah area, and calling for emergency assistance to be provided.

The council also urged Israel to respect its obligations under international humanitarian law and insisted on its obligation not to destroy homes contrary to that law.

Earlier last week, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees reported that nearly 2,200 people have been made homeless and 191 houses have been demolished throughout Gaza since the beginning of May.

The Israeli offensive will only strengthen the resistance and increase the commitment of the Palestinian people to pursue the steadfast path of Jihad.

In a message to a summit of Arab leaders in Tunis, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat urged the international community to pressure Israel back to the negotiating table.

He said military force "will not provide peace, security and stability for Israelis, but peace will, for a flourishing future for our children and theirs".

Violence in Gaza has escalated since Sharon proposed evacuating troops and Jewish settlements in a plan backed by the United States, but rejected by the Likud in a May 2 referendum.

Sharon is widely expected to present an amended proposal to the cabinet on May 30.

Palestinians have welcomed any Israeli withdrawal from land occupied in the 1967 Middle East War, but want a negotiated rather than a unilateral Gaza pullout.

No withdrawal will achieve peace or security unless it is coordinated with the Palestinian Authority.

From the 1967 war onward, Sharon's key strategic goals have been to avoid a political process at all costs. He has understood that the inescapable result of such a process would be Israel's return to the 1967 border, with only minor adjustments.

Avoiding a political process is also the reason behind Sharon's decision to withdraw Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip in return for an intensification of Israel's presence along the West Bank.

Sharon himself explained his dramatic reversal on Gaza as the consequence of his fear that without any movement, the international community might force Israel into political negotiations.

He meant what he said.

For it was Sharon, not his critics, who stated that a withdrawal from Gaza would "severely harm Palestinians" and "put an end to their dream of a Palestinian state".

(China Daily May 25, 2004)