Not exactly “defense”, but we saw something similar happening in the resent Armenia-Azerbaijan war. After they finally reached a ceasefire and many ethnic Armenians were forced to abandon their homes in the Nagorno-Karabakh region as a part of the peace deal. Many former residents burned their houses before they left. The reason they gave in interviews was they would rather see their house burned then to fathom the idea that their “enemies” would move into them.