Troops razed or sealed seven Palestinian houses Thursday to try to quell the Arab uprising, and Jewish settlers said they would punish stone-throwers themselves because the army wasn't doing its job. In the occupied lands Thursday, soldiers shot and wounded 12 youths in clashes with stone-throwers and shut down two schools where rocks were thrown, Arab officials said. The army reported that troops demolished five houses in the West Bank that belonged to Palestinian suspects in firebomb attacks on Israeli cars or soldiers.
Israeli officials maintain that house demolition's are legal .
They are carried out under emergency laws adopted by the British rulers of mandatory Palestine in 1945 when Jews were fighting for the right to establish their own state.