The Israeli army shelled sites in the besieged Gaza Strip, early Saturday, and its navy opened fire at fishermen’s boats on the Gaza coast, Palestinian WAFA News Agency reported.
WAFA correspondent said Israeli tanks fired two shells at a site east of Khuzaa town, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, causing damage and fire, but no human casualties.
Three more artillery shells were fired at a location east of Rafah city, in the south, destroying the site.
Meanwhile, the Israeli navy opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats at the pier in the northern Gaza Strip, damaging some, WAFA correspondent added.
Israel has escalated the already dire situation for the two million Palestinian civilians in Gaza by closing the fishing zone, blocking fishermen a means to make a living.
Furthermore, Israeli authorities closed the only commercial crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, stopping fuel to run the sole power plant in the Strip.
The Israeli army continues to claim that its intense bombardment and shelling of Gaza have been in retaliation for fires set to southern Israeli fields by the incendiary balloons launched from Gaza, as an act of resistance.
Israel’s practice of collective punishment is seen across the occupied territories, from the 13 year long blockade to the bombing of the Gaza Strip, from home demolitions to arbitrary arrests in the West Bank.
“Collective punishment is an inflamed scar that runs across the entire 53-year-old Israeli occupation of Palestine. Over these years, two million Palestinians in Gaza have endured a comprehensive air, sea and land blockade since 2007, several thousand Palestinian homes have been punitively demolished, extended curfews have paralyzed entire towns andregions, the bodies of dead Palestinians have been withheld from their families, and critical civilian supplies – including food, water and utilities – have been denied at various times. Notwithstanding numerous resolutions, reports and reminders critical of its use, Israel continues to rely upon collective punishment as a prominent instrument in its coercive toolbox of population control.” – Michael Lynk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories/Human Rights Council/Forty-fourth session, 15 June–3 July 2020
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~ WAFA,
