News / Palestine

Israeli bulldozers, tanks cross into Gaza, level Palestinian lands

Sunday, 05 March 2017 2:40 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 05 March 2017 2:51 PM ]

The file photo shows Israeli troops with their fleet of armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozers used to flatten their way through the besieged Gaza Strip.

A fleet of Israeli bulldozers and military vehicles has crossed the border fence into the besieged Gaza Strip and flattened private Palestinian lands, as the Tel Aviv regime’s illegal construction activities continue in the occupied Palestinian territories.

At least four Israeli armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozers, accompanied by a number of tanks, entered eastern part of the town of Fukhari in Gaza's southern governorate of Khan Yunis during the early hours of Sunday.

According to local sources, the invading convoy, dispatched from Israel's Sofa military post, advanced scores of meters into the Palestinian territory along the separation fence, relying on potential support from the artillery unit being on alert inside the base.

A number of Israeli surveillance aircraft were also reported to have flown at low altitude over the area while the bulldozers were busy leveling the lands. No gunfire or shelling was reported.

The Israeli regime has long been conducting daily incursions into Gaza and in the vicinity of the so-called buffer zone, which lies on both land and sea sides of the strip.

The photo taken on February 8, 2017 shows a general view of a construction site in a new housing project in the Israeli settlement of Nili, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli forces often fire at those Palestinians, who work in the vicinity of the zone. Tel Aviv has not yet made clear the exact demarcation of the designated zone. The practice has in effect devastated much of the agricultural and fishing sectors of the besieged coastal enclave.

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

Tel Aviv launched its latest war on Gaza in early July 2014. The 50-day military aggression, which ended on August 26, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including over 570 children. More than 11,100 others were also wounded in the war. Israel continues to carry out attacks on the Palestinian enclave from time to time.

Israel has also been constructing settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds since occupying the Palestinian territories in 1967. The settlements have been widely condemned as an insidious push toward facilitating the annexation of the Palestinian lands.

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