Israeli soldiers target Palestinian farmers (File image)
Gaza (IINA) – Israeli occupation forces opened Sunday machine gun fire on Palestinian farmers and shepherds along the borderline to the east of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian News Agency WAFA said that Israeli soldiers stationed at borderline military watchtowers opened live fire on farmers and shepherds, however no injuries were reported.
Israel has unilaterally declared a buffer zone extending between 500 meters and 1,500 meters into the Gaza Strip, effectively turning local farms into no-go zones. Israeli troops routinely open fire at Palestinian farmers and other civilians if they approach borderline land.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 17 percent of Gaza's total land area and 35 percent of its agricultural land lie within the buffer zone as of 2010, directly affecting the lives and livelihoods of more than 100,000 Gaza residents.
“Israeli forces’ use of live ammunition has placed up to 35 percent of Gaza’s farmland off-limits to farmers,” OCHA said.
The Israeli and Palestinian sides reached an Egypt-brokered open-ended ceasefire deal on 26 August 2014 to end the 51-day-long Israeli onslaught on Gaza. Over 2,200 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians, were killed and 11,000 others were injured during the aggression that also resulted in the demolition of thousands of houses.
AB/IINA
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