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Israel continues search for tunnels in Gaza

May 7, 2016 at 11:57 am

The Israeli cabinet has agreed to continue its search for tunnels in the Gaza Strip, Felesteen newspaper has reported. In a meeting on Friday, the cabinet was briefed by intelligence and army officers about events on the border with the besieged territory. They took the decision to “respond” to any rocket fire from the enclave.

For the fifth day, the border with Gaza has witnessed an “unprecedented” escalation after a state of relative calm since Israel’s 2014 summer offensive against the Palestinians. On Thursday, an Israeli artillery shell killed a 54-year-old Palestinian woman at her farm and wounded her son in Al-Fukhari, east of Khan Younis.

The Israeli army has increased its incursions across the border under the pretext of searching for tunnels. It has also tightened the 10-year-old siege on Gaza by blocking the import of cement and other construction materials.

The Palestinian resistance responded to the incursions and called for the Israeli army to halt them, otherwise its fighters will target the armoured vehicles which have crossed the border.

“These incursions represent a clear violation of the truce reached in 2014,” said the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades. The military wing of Hamas added said that it would not allow the continuation of the Israeli “aggression”.