sentences:  The use of punitive house demolitions has been highly controversial in the various conflicts of historical Palestine (now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip).The tactic had originally been used by the British in the Irish War for Independence, and exported to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1945.It was used as a means to "convince fathers to convince their sons that carrying out a terrorist attack, no matter how justified in the grander struggle, meant enormous hardship for the family."