On Thursday, a number of Israeli armored tanks infiltrated the border with Gaza from the eastern part of al-Qarara town, to the northeast of Khan Younes, according to local sources.WAFA correspondence said that three Israeli armored tanks and three bulldozers stationed at the Israeli ‘Kissufim’ military base, close to the border fence east of Khan Younes, advanced over 150 meters into Gaza’s agricultural lands, opening fire toward agricultural facilities in the area.
During the provocative incursion, the Israeli military also fired smoke bombs in the area and razed a number of tracts of agricultural land along the borderline.
Since 2005, Israel unilaterally imposed a 300-meter-wide buffer zone along the Gaza border, sharply affecting the livelihood of tens of thousands of Gaza farmers, who rely heavily on agriculture to provide for their families.
As of 2010, UN-OCHA estimated that 35 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land is located in restricted-access areas, affecting the lives and livelihoods of approximately 113,000 people.
Farmers in farmlands on the borders say their situation has only worsened since the last war ended in 2014, pointing to the Israeli military’s frequent incursions into their lands and its practice of firing live ammunition at farmers who enter the ‘buffer zone’ between Gaza and Israel.
Israel and the Palestinian factions, under Egyptian auspices, signed a ceasefire deal on August 26, 2014 which put an end to the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, which claimed the lives of over 2,200 Gaza refugees, overwhelmingly civilians.
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