Israeli forces made a brief incursion into the southern Gaza Strip Thursday despite orders not to launch any offensive action against the Palestinians during a two-day-old fragile ceasefire.
A bulldozer accompanied by two troop carriers leveled 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) of Palestinian farm land near the Jewish settlement of Morag before pulling out again, the head of the Palestinian-Israeli liaison committee, Colonel Khaled Abu Ula told AFP.
He called the brief operation into Palestinian-controlled territory "a violation of the ceasefire" that both sides pledged to observe on Tuesday.
The truce, urged by the United States in the aftermath of the massive terrorist strikes it suffered last week, has already been violated by several shootings and attacks, one of which killed a Jewish settler woman in the West Bank early Thursday.
In another development, the Palestinian news agency, WAFA, reported that Israeli soldiers detained tens of Palestinian youths in a village near the West Bank city of Tulkarem.
It said that the occupation troops detained the youths near an Israeli checkpoint, located south of Deir Al-Ghsoun village and beat them severely before releasing them – Albawaba.com
