Some Israeli citizens are challenging the Jewish state over its practice of demolishing Palestinian houses.

They have taken up trowels and buckets to rebuild two houses that were knocked down in a Palestinian town straddling East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Younes Sbaih says he has been moved by the generosity of about 20 volunteers who are rebuilding his house from a pile of rubble.

The group - some who cart sand and cement while others work with saws and jackhammers - will take just two weeks to build the house from scratch.

"They're my brothers," Mr Sbaih says. "There are no words I can give you to show my appreciation."

Mr Sbaih knows he built the home illegally under Israeli law but did so in the knowledge that Palestinians applying for a building permit in East Jerusalem are nearly always knocked back.

Sure enough, one month after his house was built Israeli authorities ordered its demolition, forcing the family of eight to move in with neighbours.

Peter Smith from Leeds in Britain is one of the 60 volunteers who have joined the campaign to rebuild Palestinian homes. This year they are building two.

"There is clearly to my mind a clear ethnic cleansing being conducted by the state of Israel in flagrant denial of international humanitarian law and international law," he said.

"I have no doubt that in five or six months' time they'll be rubble again like we're standing on. We have to keep doing this. We'll come back and we'll rebuild it again."

Mr Sbaih's house is just one of thousands of homes slated for demolition in East Jerusalem.

'Acts of resistance'

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions says since 1967, Israel has demolished 24,000 homes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The committee's director, Jeff Halper, says in the past decade his volunteers have rebuilt about 165 houses in "a political act of resistance".

"If we were [only doing humanitarian acts] - and it's a big deal, it's 165 houses out of 24,000 - it really wouldn't make any sense, especially if they can be demolished again," he said.

"But if you think of this as 165 acts of resistance, of Israelis and Palestinians together plus international people, that gives it a whole different meaning."

Israel maintains it has every right to demolish homes that are built without correct permits, even though the international community does not recognise Israel's sovereignty over East Jerusalem.

Mark Regev from the office of Israel's prime minister says like Jewish citizens, Palestinians have every right to appeal through the courts.

"There's no such thing as a housing demolition that happens because some policeman or some military officer says that house has to be destroyed; there has to be due process," he said.

"There's always the option for appeal, and I can assure you that in any case where there's been housing demolition, the correct legal process has gone through."