The Israeli Army fatally shoot an elderly Palestinian farmer, claiming he had violated a combat zone by entering his farm near Gaza’s border with Israel.

On Saturday, the 75-year-old, identified as Fuad Abu Matar, was "hit with several bullets fired by Israeli occupation soldiers," Muawia Hassanein, head of the Gaza Strip’s emergency services was quoted by AFP as saying.

The victim’s body was recovered in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the coastal sliver.

An Army spokesman, however, said the soldiers had spotted a man nearing a border fence, saying "The whole sector near the security barrier is considered a combat zone." He also accused the Palestinians of "many provocations and attempted attacks."

Agriculture remains a staple source of livelihood in the Gaza Strip ever since mid-June 2007, when Tel Aviv imposed a crippling siege on the impoverished coastal sliver, tightening the restrictions it had already put in place there.

Israel has, meanwhile, declared 20 percent of the arable lands in Gaza a no-go area. Israeli forces would keep surveillance of the area and attack any farmer who might approach the “buffer zone.”

Also on Saturday, the Israeli troops also injured another Palestinian near northern Gaza’s border, said Palestinian emergency services and witnesses.

(Press TV)