Israeli Occupation Forces shot dead a member of Hamas's armed wing after a firefight erupted along the border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian hospital officials in the besieged enclave said.
Hamas, a Palestinian resistance group, said 33-year-old Tayseer Asmairi, a member of its armed wing's monitoring unit in the southern Gaza Strip, was killed by Israeli fire, while two other Palestinians were injured.
Hamas described the attack as a “grave escalation,” warning that Israel is “playing with fire.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli army claimed in a statement that a "routine patrol" on the Israeli side of the border came under attack from snipers in the southern Gaza Strip and that forces responded with airstrikes and artillery fire.
"In response to the firing at our forces who were east of the fence in the southern Gaza Strip, we carried out immediate attacks against the relevant targets," the statement stated.
Earlier, Israeli media reported that a soldier had been seriously wounded by sniper fire near the southern Gaza border.
Wednesday’s attack is the latest in a handful of Israeli violations in recent weeks since a ceasefire reached between Israel and Palestinian resistance groups on August 26 ended 51 days of relentless Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, which killed over 2,160 Palestinians.
Last week, Israeli jets bombed the Gaza Strip just hours after a rocket hit an open field in southern Occupied Palestine without causing casualties or damage.
Hamas did not claim responsibility for the rocket launch but Israel holds the resistance movement responsible for any rocket fire from Gaza regardless of who carries it out.
It was only the third instance of rocket fire from Gaza since the Israeli assault on the besieged enclave ended, whereas Israel has continued to target civilians in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire.
The Egyptian-brokered deal which ended it was supposed to have been followed by talks on a more lasting truce, but they were called off amid deteriorating relations between Cairo and Hamas.
When the ceasefire went into effect, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that his government would not tolerate a single rocket fired on Israeli territory, and would strike back even more strongly if attacked.
However, Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked Gaza residents since the end of the bloody seven-week assault.
On November 23, Fadil Muhammad Halawah, 32, was hunting birds when Israeli soldiers shot him dead.
Moreover, the Israeli navy routinely shoots at Palestinian fishing boats under the pretext that they go beyond fishing space specified for them.
As part of the ceasefire deal, Israel said it would allow Palestinian fishermen to ply their trade up to six nautical miles off the coast of the Gaza Strip – as opposed to three miles previously.
However, since the ceasefire was signed, Israeli forces have fired at several fishermen who they claim had ventured beyond the limit of six nautical miles, an assertion Palestinian authorities have rejected.
According to Nizar Ayyash, head of Gaza's Palestinian Fishermen's Union, some 50,000 Gazans earn their living from the fishing business. He estimated their combined losses during Israel's recent war at more than $6 million.
Ever since Hamas – which Israel deems a "terrorist" organization – won the 2006 legislative polls, Israel has imposed a tight land and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Hamas last week said that Israel's "daily violations" in the Gaza Strip were in breach of the ceasefire agreement.
"Israeli airstrikes this morning and the continuous targeting of fishermen and farmers tamper with the ceasefire agreement," Hamas leader Salah Bardawil said in a statement.
"The daily violations [by Israel] and the delay in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip are clear violations of the truce," Bardawil said.
He also speculated that recent Israeli aggression could be part of Netanyahu’s electoral campaign ahead of the March election to make up for his "defeat" in Gaza.
Also last week, four Palestinians were shot and injured by Israeli gunfire near the Gaza Strip's border with the Zionist state.
Israel occasionally announces the arrest of Palestinians who attempt to cross from the Gaza Strip into southern Occupied Palestine in search of work.
Unemployment and poverty rates in the blockaded coastal strip have both surpassed the 50-percent mark, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
Gaza's labor union estimates that nearly 30,000 workers in the Gaza Strip are jobless due to Israel's devastating military onslaught this summer, along with another 170,000 who have lost their jobs as a direct result of Israel's years-long blockade of the Palestinian territory.
(Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)
Palestinian Fighter Martyred, Zionist Officer Injured as IOF, Gaza Trade Fire
A Palestinian Resistance fighter was martyred and an Israeli officer was injured as clashes broke out between Palestinian resistance and occupation forces near the border with the besieged strip of Gaza.
Palestinian medical sources said Tayseer al-Ismary, 33, was martyred after being hit by a bullet, while sources of the resistance movement, Hamas confirmed he was a member of the movement's military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
The occupation military confirmed the Israeli attack, noting that the Israeli forces launched an air strike and tank fire in southern Gaza.
Meanwhile, Palestine Today agency reported that the Palestinian resistance responded to the Israeli fire. It also quoted Israeli media as saying that several occupation soldiers were injured in the fire trade, noting that one officer was seriously wounded.
Source: Agencies
| 24-12-2014 - 15:26 Last updated 24-12-2014 - 15:28 |
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