Israeli forces on Saturday opened fire at Palestinian farmers near the security fence in south-east Gaza Strip and sent ground troops into the other end of the coastal territory, according to eyetwitness accounts, dpa reported. The farmers were working their land in the Faraheen area in the east of Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip when they came under machine gun fire from the Israeli army posts on the border, the witnesses said. According to security sources, another machine gun was fired from the border along in the north-east Gaza Strip, east of the town of Jabaliya. Meanwhile, three Israeli bulldozers, backed by two tanks, rolled for a few hundreds of meters into Beit Lahiya town, an agricultural community in the northern Gaza Strip. Residents said the bulldozers leveled some groves and withdrew later in the morning. Palestinian militants fired three mortar shells at the invading troops in Beit Lahiya. The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) claimed responsibility for the mortar attack. Earlier, Israeli sources said that two rockets, fired from Gaza, landed in an open area in Western Negev, causing no casualties. In late December 2008, Israel launched the toughest offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,300 Palestinians and destroying thousands of houses and Hamas-run governmental buildings.
