Three Palestinian farmers injured as Israel attacks Gaza, targets farmers

Israel has launched artillery strikes against the Gaza Strip, injuring three Palestinian farmers in the besieged enclave.

Israeli tanks opened fire at several posts belonging to the Palestinian resistance movements on the eastern and northern borders of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) said.

The Israeli military also opened fire at lands belonging to civilians in the eastern areas of central and southern Gaza Strip, the PIC added.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, three people were injured in the Israeli attacks.

The PIC said the injuries took place as the artillery shells were fired towards Palestinian farmers from the same family in the city of Beit Hanoun.

One of the injured was in serious condition.

Tel Aviv claims that the artillery attacks occurred in response to a shooting attack launched from the besieged enclave that left a settler lightly injured on the border fence between the Israeli-occupied territories and Gaza.

Gaza, home to some two million Palestinians, has been under Israeli siege since June 2007. The tight blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

Back on May 10, the Israeli military launched a brutal bombing campaign against Gaza, following Palestinian retaliation for violent Israeli raids on worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque and the regime’s plans to force a number of Palestinian families out of their homes at the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East al-Quds.

About 260 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli bombardment, including dozens of women and children.

In response, Palestinian resistance movements, chief among them Hamas, launched Operation al-Quds Sword and fired more than 4,000 rockets and missiles into the occupied territories, killing 12 Israelis.

Apparently caught off guard by the unprecedented barrage of rockets from Gaza, Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire on May 21, which Palestinian resistance movements accepted with Egyptian mediation.