Israel escalates its campaign against Gaza’s farmers

Israel stepped up the pace of its campaign targeting Palestinian farmers in Gaza and their agricultural properties early yesterday morning, especially along the eastern borders of the Gaza Strip.

Quds Net News Agency reported that “since Sunday morning, the occupation forces have opened fire on the eastern regions of the Strip.” There were no casualties.

“The Israeli occupation forces targeted the farmers and shepherds in the eastern regions of the two towns of Khan Younis and Rafah as well as the Bureij refugee camp,” Quds Net said.

Soldiers stationed along the eastern border used machine guns to attack shepherds and farmers, forcing them to leave their farms and move to safety.

On Saturday, the Gaza border witnessed unusual movements of Israeli machines and jeeps, different types of aircrafts flew in Gaza’s skies in the wake of the of the emergence news on Israeli websites about a security incident that had reportedly taken place on the border – that the Palestinian resistance’s aircrafts penetrated the airspace of the Eshkol regional council.

The farmers in the eastern region of the Gaza Strip are being subjected to almost daily shootings by Israeli troops positioned along the border in order to prevent the farmers and shepherds from reclaiming the devastated areas and to preserve the buffer zone along the border, which stretches over 300 meters from the occupied territories and makes up 20-25% of Gaza’s area.