"Israel has stepped up demolitions of Palestinian homes in the Jordan Valley, the eastern part of the occupied West Bank, leaving more than 700 homeless since the beginning of the year, a rights body said yesterday. Israeli bulldozers have razed 103 homes so far this year, said B'Tselem, a respected Israeli human rights organisation, marking a sharp increase from the 83 homes it said were demolished last year. The policy has drawn sharp condemnation from NGOs, which accuse Israel of deliberately displacing thousands of Palestinian rural communities in a strategic border area that the Jewish state considers critical to its security."