Israel bulldozers conduct incursion of Rafah in Gaza
Israeli bulldozers and military vehicles have reportedly intruded into the Palestinian border town of Rafah in the blockaded Gaza Strip, locals say.
Witnesses said four bulldozers and vehicles belonging to the Israeli military conducted an incursion into the southern town in Gaza, where Egyptian forces demolished over 1,000 homes earlier this week to create a so-called buffer zone.
Egyptian officials said Tuesday that the country’s military had razed to the ground at least 1,020 homes in Rafah, near the border with southern Gaza Strip, in the second phase of an operation to create a buffer zone with the Israeli-besieged territory.
In a separate development on Thursday, Israeli naval forces also opened fire at Palestinian fishermen across the al-Sudaniya coastline off Gaza City, the Palestinian news agency cited witnesses and sources as saying.
The sources also said one fishing boat had been damaged in the Israeli assault.
The shooting came despite an August 26 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinians, under which Tel Aviv agreed to immediately expand the fishing zone off Gaza’s coast, allowing fishermen in the blockaded sliver to sail as far as six nautical miles from shore. The agreement also stipulated that the regime would expand the area gradually up to 12 miles.
The ceasefire deal put an end to the Israeli regime’s 50-day military offensive against Gaza, which claimed more than 2,100 lives and injured nearly 11,000 last summer.
Since September 1, however, Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian fishermen, arrested over 49 more, injured 17, confiscated 12 fishing boats and damaged fishing tools in nine other such incidents.
The Gaza Strip has been under Israel’s blockade since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.
MFB/MKA/SS
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