Thursday, August 4, 2011

Activists pray in Gaza's buffer zone

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Popular resistance activists held noon prayers on Tuesday in the "buffer zone" in northern Gaza.

International solidarity activists joined dozens of Palestinians to pray on lands recently bulldozed by Israel near Beit Hanoun.

Israeli forces impose a "buffer zone" 300 meters from the border inside Gaza. Israel's army says it considers the area a combat zone and frequently fires at Palestinians who enter the area, killing many civilians.

In practice, the no-go area extends over a kilometer inside the Gaza Strip in some areas. It encompasses around 20 percent of the coastal enclave, including fertile Palestinian farmland.

Activists said they organized prayers in the buffer zone as an act of resistance to Israeli forces who were watching from behind the concrete wall.