For Immediate Release:
Thursday, 21 May 2009: Five international human rights workers from the ISM-Gaza Strip will be accompanying 10 farmers from Khoza’a as they harvest crops several hundred metres from the Green Line.
In the morning, human rights workers will join Palestinian farmers in Khoza’a village, located east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, to farm land 300-350 meters from the ‘Green Line’.
Farmers and international accompaniers were last fired upon in Letaemat, Gaza by Israeli forces on the 9th of May.
Several farmers have been shot by Israeli forces while farming their lands.
Mohammed al-Buraim is the fourth Palestinian farmer to be shot by Israeli forces in the ‘buffer zone’ in the last months. The three shootings prior to Mohammed’s were: on 18 January, Maher Abu-Rajileh (24) from Khoza’a village, was killed by Israeli soldiers while working on his land 400m from the Green Line; on 20 January, Israeli soldiers shot Waleed al-Astal (42) of Al Qarara (near Khan Younis) in his right foot; and on 27 January, Anwar al-Buraim was shot in the neck and killed.