Late Sunday evening, Israeli forces stationed on the Gaza-Israel border fired tank shells across the border into the Gaza Strip, killing three shepherds – although Israel claims the men were fighters preparing to fire a homemade shell into Israel.The men who were killed were identified as 19-year old Ibrahim Abu Said, 21-year old Ismail Abu Odeh, and the grandfather of Ismail Abu Odeh, according to medical sources.
Although an Israeli military spokesperson claimed that the men were identified as fighters trying to fire a projectile into Israel, local sources report that the men were in fact shepherds. No Palestinian armed group stepped forward to claim that the men were fighters, which the groups always do when any of their fighters are killed.
The killings come after a series of Israeli bombings on Friday, the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Fatr, which destroyed three municipal buildings in Gaza. These bombings sparked the Palestinian resistance in Gaza to shoot off eleven homemade projectiles over the course of the weekend, which landed in open areas in Israel, causing no injuries or damage.
Over twenty Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since last year on the Gaza-Israel border, many of whom were killed for allegedly getting too close to the ‘no-man’s land’ that Israel has established on the Gazan side of the border.
