The Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, yesterday protested at what he called "another criminal operation" by Israeli forces - the demolition of what Israel claimed were about a dozen uninhabited homes in Gaza's Rafah refugee camp, from which it said its troops were coming under fire.
Mr Arafat and his officials, by contrast, said that two dozen homes had been bulldozed and 150 people left homeless.
Three Israeli soldiers and six Palestinians were injured in clashes as the bulldozers worked, one seriously on each side.
The destruction of the buildings came only a day after Jerusalem City Council demolished a dozen homes in another refugee camp, Shuafat, claiming they were being constructed without permits.
Israeli officials insisted that the Rafah demolitions amounted to self-defence. Some 250 hand-grenades have been thrown at Israeli forces in the area in recent days, they added. But US State Department officials criticised the Israeli government over both instances of demolition, warning of the potential for such operations to provoke violence.
In an effort to stabilise a four-week cease-fire, Israel's Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, has been holding talks with one of Mr Arafat's most senior aides, Mr Abu Ala, speaker of the Palestinian parliament.
Mr Peres came away from the latest of these meetings reporting that Mr Arafat was now working hard to prevent attacks on Israel, and to arrest those orchestrating such attacks. However, Mr Arafat, who returned to Ramallah yesterday from talks with King Abdullah of Jordan, was accompanied by Marwan Barghouti, the West Bank Fatah leader whom Israel claims is the chief instigator of drive-by shootings on West Bank roads.
In central Israel, meanwhile, the taps were being turned back on last night after one of the country's worst water scares. Two million people were told not to drink their water for 24 hours after fertiliser and ammonia found their way into the water main. Officials do not believe the pollution was deliberate.
Reuters adds: An Iranian who illegally crossed the border from Lebanon into Israel has asked police for political asylum, according to an Israeli police official.
During questioning, the Iranian said he had done archaeological work for President Mohammed Khatami's son a year ago and fled Iran after several of his friends were executed. However. a source close to President Khatami's family told Reuters in Dubai that the president's son was a secondary school pupil. The other two children are daughters, according to the source.