A Palestinian security source in the Gaza Strip reported on Tuesday afternoon that two residents were killed and six were injured after the Israeli army shelled with heavy artillery Palestinian houses and agricultural areas in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
The two killed residents were identified as Abdullah Da’absa and Khaled Abu Shammas; five other residents were injured.
The source stated that Israeli artillery installed along the northern borders of the Gaza Strip shelled several houses and agricultural areas in Beit Lahia forcing the residents to evacuate from their homes.
As the extensive shelling resumed in the area, Palestinian rescue teams and security forces started evacuating Palestinian homes along the borders in an attempt to avoid further human causalities.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israel threatened to carry an operation it called “The southern Arrow” in the Gaza Strip in retaliation to homemade shells fired by resistance fighters against Israeli areas along the Gaza Strip borders.
The threats were translated into acts when the army shelled a helicopter landing pad about100 meters away from the office of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, in the Gaza Strip. Abbas was in the West Bank when the attack took place.
Directly after the attack, Palestinian police officers left two large police stations in Gaza City, apparently for fear of additional air strikes.
Abbas denounced that military attacks and called for the international community to intervene and stop the Israeli destruction policy and continuous attack against the Palestinian areas and people.
Abbas stated that he contacted the UN, Russia, the EU and the United states and informed them that these actions complicate daily life of the residents and affect the human and social status.
Also, Abbas’s spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rodeina, called on the United States and the European Union to intervene in order to stop the Israeli military escalation “that could lead the area to more violence and instability”.
Meanwhile, Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, condemned the military escalation in the Palestinian territories, especially in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyya, told reporters that the Israeli escalation and shelling to the Palestinian territories, and shelling Abbas’s helicopter landing pad, is an attempt to foil the work of the new Palestinian government and to impose forced unilateral solutions.
