Date: 04 / 05 / 2009 Time: 12:58 | |
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| [Ma'anImages] |
Eyewitnesses told Ma’an that the fire devoured several fields at the eastern border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which Israeli forces have labeled a military zone. Firefighters hurried to the area and began extinguishing the flames.
Agriculture ministry condemns IOF burning of wheat, barley crops |
| [ 04/05/2009 - 07:32 PM ] |
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GAZA, (PIC)-- The agriculture ministry in the Gaza Strip on Monday denounced the Israeli occupation forces for targeting wheat and barley crops in eastern and northern areas of the Gaza Strip. The ministry in a statement by its public relations department said that the IOF troops recently escalated its targeting of farmers along the borders of Gaza firing at farmers at random to prevent them from cultivating their lands, their only source of income. It noted that the IOF gunboats also target fishermen and their boats, which greatly affected work of those fishermen. The military escalation against farmers in Gaza coincides with the escalation by IOF soldiers and Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, the ministry said, asking for an Arab and international intervention to protect the Palestinian farmers and to ensure their right to work in their lands. IOF tanks fired dozens of shells at farmers working in their lands late Sunday wounding one of them, who was hospitalized with shrapnel wounds all over his body, and starting fires in wheat and barley crops along with citrus trees. Another Palestinian citizen was injured when IOF soldiers fired at him east of Beit Hanun town, north of Gaza, and was kidnapped by those soldiers while bleeding. |
