GAZA, Friday, March 19, 2021 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Friday morning targeted farmers and shepherds to the east of al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central besieged Gaza Strip, according to WAFA correspondent.

He said that Israeli forces stationed along the border to the east of the camp opened gunfire towards a group of farmers and shepherds as the latter were tending to their land and livestock, forcing them to flee for safety.

Meanwhile, Israeli navy opened fire and water hoses towards Palestinian fishermen sailing three nautical miles offshore As-Sudaniya and al-Waha areas, northeast of Gaza.

No injuries were reported though.

Fourteen years following the Israeli “disengagement” from Gaza, Israel has not actually disengaged from Gaza; it still maintains control of its land borders, access to the sea and airspace.

Two million Palestinians live the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a punishing and crippling Israeli blockade for 12 years and repeated onslaughts that have heavily damaged much of the enclave’s infrastructure.

Gaza’s 2-million population remains under “remote control” occupation and a strict siege, which has destroyed the local economy, strangled Palestinian livelihoods, plunged them into unprecedented rates of unemployment and poverty, and cut off from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories and the wider world.

Gaza remains occupied territory, having no control over its borders, territorial waters or airspace. Meanwhile, Israel upholds very few of its responsibilities as the occupying power, failing to provide for the basic needs of Palestinian civilians living in the territory.

Every two in three Palestinians in Gaza is a refugee from lands inside what is now Israel. That government forbids them from exercising their right to return as enshrined in international law because they are not Jews.

K.F.