Israeli armor moves into Gaza, digging trenches

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121858§ionid=351020202


Israeli forces have crossed into the Gaza Strip while tensions remain high following Tel Aviv's Friday incursion into the Hamas-run Palestinian coastal enclave.

Israeli soldiers moved around 500 meters (yards) inside Gaza on Sunday in several armored vehicles including bulldozers.

Witnesses said the troops were predominantly targeting olive groves and almond fields in the Abasan al-Jadida area east of Khan Yunis.

They dug large trenches and fired warning shots to keep farmers away, but there were no reports of casualties.

Sunday's incursion was close to the site where Israeli tanks, bulldozers and jeeps, backed by helicopters, carried out a strike late Friday damaging two houses and killing a Palestinian. Seven people were also wounded in the attack.

In an earlier skirmish, two Israeli soldiers were killed and two others wounded.

This is while Israel's Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz has threatened that Tel Aviv will "liquidate" Hamas sooner or later, adding that Israel may even launch a new offensive on the Gaza Strip.

Israel launched a 22-day war on the coastal strip in December 2008, killing over 1,400 Palestinians, most of them civilians.

The offensive also devastated a large portion of the impoverished territory's infrastructure and left thousands of Gazans homeless.