Israeli forces Monday infiltrated the borders with Gaza and went nearly 100 meters into the eastern part of Rafah city, in the southern Gaza strip, according to witnesses.

Witnesses said a number of Israeli armored tanks, stationed at the Israeli military base along the borderline, briefly entered the border to the east of Rafah city.

The Israeli military has made at least 50 military incursions into the Gaza Strip since the start of the year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Since 2005, Israel unilaterally imposed a 300-meter-wide buffer zone into the border with Gaza, sharply affecting the livelihood of tens of thousands of Gaza farmers, who rely heavily on agriculture to provide for their families.

As of 2010, UN-OCHA estimated that 35 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land is located in restricted-access areas, affecting the lives and livelihoods of approximately 113,000 people.

Farmers in farmland on the borders say their situation has only worsened since the last war ended in 2014 summer, pointing to the Israeli military’s frequent incursions into their land and its practice of firing live ammunition at farmers who enter the ‘buffer zone’ between Gaza and Israel.

Israel continues to breach a ceasefire deal reached with the Palestinian side on August 26, 2014, following 51 days of deadly aggression on the strip, which claimed the lives of over 2,200 Gaza refugees, overwhelmingly civilians.

Source: Wafa