11-25-2008

By Saed Bannoura

IMEMC News:

Local sources report that a group of Israeli-armored bulldozers and tanks invaded the al-Fukhari neighborhood east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Tuesday morning, and bulldozed a number of farms.

According to eyewitnesses, the bulldozers crushed a number of Palestinian greenhouses and razed potato fields belonging to Palestinian farmers.

The invasion was the first in several days, after a calm that followed a two week assault on all parts of Gaza. That assault threatened to break a ceasefire that had allegedly been in place for three months (Israeli forces had violated the ceasefire dozens of times, but the two week assault was the first flagrant violation).

The local sources reported that nine tanks and two bulldozers invaded the neighborhood at dawn, with the soldiers firing machine guns from the tanks. Farmers and other residents were forced to flee to the west to avoid being hit by the gunfire. No injuries were reported.

Abu Suhaib, a commander of Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, responded, “We are ready to burn the land under the feet of the enemy when it attacks us anytime after the lull is over”.

http://www.imemc.org/article/57801