Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian farmer in his land in northeast Gaza Strip Monday afternoon, witnesses and security sources said, Xinhua reported.
Troops at Gaza-Israel borders opened fire at the 65-year-old Palestinian as he worked in his land, which is located in what Israel considers a no-go zone.
The farmer was evacuated to hospital, where doctors identified him as Shaban Qarmout. He was hit with several gunshots.
The Palestinians challenge the allocation of a 300-meter-wide buffer zone in northern and eastern Gaza Strip, as it eats up agricultural land and makes the lives of people there unbearable.
Dozens of Palestinians were injured and a few of them have died due to Israeli fire in that area. Most of the casualties are workers digging for gravel and scrap metal at the sites of former Jewish settlements that Israel evacuated in 2005.
Cross-border violence has been high for weeks, with Israeli army and Palestinian militants exchange fire more routinely.
In December, Israeli fire killed 13 Palestinians, most of them militants, and militant groups responded by firing mortars and crude rockets into Israeli communities. Last week, two foreign workers were wounded when a mortar shell landed in an Israeli community village in Western Negev.
Last night, Israeli warplanes struck two targets in the Gaza Strip in response to the rocket fire, despite Hamas' attempts to enforce a shaky ceasefire.
Hamas says it does not want another Operation Cast Lead, the code name of the three-week offensive which killed up to 1,400 Palestinians, to happen again in the coastal enclave, which is merely recovering from the 2008-2009 offensive.