News / Palestine

Israeli tanks fire on besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip

Thursday, 06 October 2016 4:53 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 06 October 2016 7:24 PM ]

Smoke rises from western Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike on October 5, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli tanks shell the besieged Gaza Strip after an alleged rocket attack from the Palestinians in the coastal sliver targeted the occupied territories.

No casualties were reported from the Thursday attack, which was launched after Tel Aviv claimed a rocket had landed in an open area in the south of the occupied territories earlier in the day.

The tank shelling by Israeli forces targeted farmland east of Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday, Israeli tanks shelled an observation post belonging to the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, near the northern city of Beit Hanun.

Moreover, Israeli warplanes carried out two airstrikes in eastern Gaza Strip, while two other air raids hit the southern city of Khan Yunis and the Tufah neighborhood of Gaza City in the coastal enclave’s north.

Hamas warns Israel of ‘military escalation’

Reacting to Israel’s attacks on the besieged enclave, Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said on Thursday, “We condemn the Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip and warn against its continuation.”

A Palestinian woman prays near a site that was hit by an Israeli airstrike the previous day in Gaza City on October 6, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

He further stressed that the movement would not “sit idly by” and allow Israeli airstrikes to continue.

Israeli warplanes frequently bomb Gaza. The Israeli military also uses drones over the impoverished region to monitor and photograph Palestinian military units in the blockaded coastal enclave or launch aerial attacks.

Back in August, Tel Aviv targeted Gaza with dozens of airstrikes and tank shelling after a rocket allegedly hit the city of Sderot.

Israel has waged three wars on Gaza since 2008, including the 2014 offensive, which left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead and over 11,100 others injured.

Gaza has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the Palestinian coastal enclave.

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