Several Israeli bulldozers Thursday evening entered the eastern part of al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, reportedly razing and leveling Palestinian lands, According to Palestinian local agencies.
Witnesses said that Israeli military vehicles, including two bulldozers, entered al-Bureij from the border area between the besieged enclave and Israel and proceeded to level and raze land inside Palestinian territory.
Israeli military incursions inside the besieged Gaza Strip and near the “buffer zone” which lies on both land and sea sides of Gaza, have long been a near-daily occurrence.
Palestinians who work near the unilaterally declared “buffer zone” between the Palestinian enclave and Israel often come under fire from military forces, as the Israeli military has not made clear the precise area of the designated zone.
The practice has in effect destroyed much of the agricultural sector of the blockaded coastal enclave.
Israeli activities along the border area, including the near decade-long siege of the Gaza Strip, has caused frequent clashes to erupt between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces during protests near the security barrier with Israel.
Last week, an 18-year-old Palestinian was shot in the head by Israeli forces during protests near the border with Israel east of al-Bureij refugee camp. The Israeli army, however, denied involvement in the deadly shooting.
On the other hand, Israeli fighter jets struck a number of targets in the blockaded Gaza Strip at predawn time on Thursday, resulting in remarkable material damage.
Israeli war jets struck a Palestinian land near the Ashkelon training site, which belongs to Hamas Movement to the northwest of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza Strip. Two other Israeli rockets landed in al-Shaymaa area, to the northwest of Beit Lahiya, resulting in wildfires.
The third strike hit the Yarmouk resistance training site in al-Shuja’iya neighborhood, to the east of Gaza. The Israeli occupation army claimed the attack was carried out in response to an earlier mortar shell fired from the blockaded enclave that landed in an open field in the Eshkol settlement council, causing no injury or damage.
On September 6, five Israeli shells rocked the northern outskirts of the blockaded enclave and resulted in the partial destruction of al-Shanti’s family home in Beit Hanoun town. On August 21, the Israeli occupation army hit the northern corners of the Gaza Strip with 60 air strikes. A Palestinian boy was left injured at the time and several others have gone traumatized.
At least 28 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since a wave of violence first erupted across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel last October, according to Ma’an documentation.
More than 1,500 Gazans have been injured by Israeli forces since the start of 2015, the vast majority during clashes that broke out with the Israeli military during protests since October, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The Israeli-imposed blockade has plunged the Gaza Strip’s more than 1.8 million Palestinians into poverty. The destruction from three Israeli offensives over the past six years and slow reconstruction due to the blockade led the UN in September to warn that Gaza could be “uninhabitable” by 2020.
