On Sunday, Israeli forces moved into an area east of Gaza City to take control of a major intersection, witnesses and the army said. Israeli bulldozers destroyed farmland, an irrigation pool and roads in the area.
There were no casualties in the raid, which lasted four hours, witnesses said, according to AP.
An Israeli army spokesman said part of the main north-south road in Gaza was damaged to prevent "terrorists" from moving within the territory, and to prevent mortar shell attacks. The spokesman said four mortar shells were fired at Jewish settlements overnight.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that soldiers entered three separate points in the Gaza Strip and said they destroyed electrical infrastructure in Gaza City, leaving some residents without power.
Also Sunday, shots were fired at an Israeli helicopter near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, believed to be the first time that an Israeli helicopter had been fired upon in the Palestinian territories, Army Radio reported.
No one was hurt, but the helicopter was damaged, according to the report. An army spokesman confirmed the incident. The pilot brought the machine down safely in nearby area, where checks were carried out.
Some 200 Palestinians defied an Israeli-imposed curfew to march through Nablus Sunday in protest of a new security checkpoint in the middle of this West Bank town. Demonstrators complained that the new checkpoint, established two weeks ago, has severely hampered traffic between the eastern and western sides of Nablus.
In another development, a 15-year-old Egyptian girl was critically wounded Saturday after being shot by Egyptian police as she was trying to infiltrate into Gaza Strip from Egypt, AFP reported.
The girl, identified as Mariam Abed Rabbo Salameh, told investigators that she and two young Egyptian men were trying to smuggle weapons and drugs into Gaza near the border town of Rafah, the report said. (Albawaba.com)
