SEVEN GAZANS WOUNDED AT JABALIA “BUFFER ZONE”
Gaza, 1 Rabiul Akhir 1435 / 1 February 2014 ( MINA ) – Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qadra told Anadolu Agency that the seven were injured in eastern Jabalia when Israeli occupation troops opened fire on them, adding that injuries ranged from slight to moderate.
Scores of Palestinian activists on Friday attempted to enter a 300-meter Israel-imposed buffer zone along the strip’s eastern and northern borders before Israeli troops drove them back with teargas and gunfire.
One week ago, a Palestinian youth was killed and five others injured in the same area when Israeli forces opened fire on a group of Palestinian agricultural workers, Anadolu Agency reported as quoted Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).
Despite a 2012 Egypt-brokered truce between Israel and Palestinian resistance factions, Palestinian agricultural workers in the north and east of the Gaza Strip face frequent attacks and land incursions by Israeli forces.
The truce deal calls for Israeli forces to withdraw from the buffer zone to allow Palestinian farmers to cultivate their land. Nevertheless, Israeli forces often shoot at or arrest Palestinians in the area, who they accuse of approaching the separation fence between the two territories.
On Friday morning, Israeli fighter jets targeted Gaza Strip. The Israeli occupation military said in a statement that its aircraft targeted “a terror activity site and a weapon manufacturing facility in the northern Gaza strip and a weapon storage facility” in southern Gaza.
Tensions have recently risen in and around Gaza after a year of relative calm, with six Palestinians and an Israeli killed since Dec. 20 and militant rocket fire sparking retaliatory air strikes.
On Jan. 22, the army killed two Palestinians, one of them identified by Israel as a militant from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who the army said was behind recent rocket attacks.
Hamas recently confirmed it had deployed forces in Gaza to “preserve the truce” with Israel, brokered by Egypt, which ended the last major confrontation in November 2012.
In a related story, an increasing number of West Bank settlers hold command positions, Israel’s military magazine said.
Bamahane weekly reported Thursday that 16 percent of those who attended the latest company and battalion commanders’ training course were residents of the West Bank – four times the proportion of settlers in the Israeli population.
A recent graduate of the course quoted in the report said settlers had more motivation to serve given their proximity to Palestinians attacks. But the report also raised questions about how these officers would respond if ordered to evacuate settlements for a future peace deal. ( T/P04 ) .
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
