Israeli forces kill another elderly Palestinian

Israeli soldiers have shot and killed another elderly Palestinian man, just days after they murdered a man of a similar age in his bed in Hebron. The latest killing took place in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The Israelis opened fire on 65-year-old Shaaban Shaker Qarmout while he was working on his land outside Beit Hanoun. Reports from the emergency services say that Mr. Qarmout was hit by three bullets and was pronounced dead at the scene of the murder.

Although the Israel government claims to have pulled out of Gaza unilaterally in 2005, it maintains a 300 metre “exclusion zone” around Gaza within Palestinian territory. This has a serious and detrimental effect on farmers along the border who are often unable to tend their land and livestock.