The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) killed three farmers, one of whom was an elderly man with his child grandson as they worked in their land in the north-Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, and the third was a child.
The IOF fired artillery shells at the farmers who were in their land less than 500 meters from the northern separation fence between Gaza and Israel.
In a separate attack, in the morning of Tuesday 14 September 2010, the IOF opened fire on a peaceful demonstration against the 'security buffer zone'.
As Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has frequently asserted, the IOF enforcement of the 'security buffer zone' inside the Gaza Strip has been carried out by means and methods that gravely violate international law.
Al Mezan condemns these Israeli violations and calls on the international community to protect civilians and stop the IOF deadly enforcement of the 'security buffer zone' in Gaza.
According to Al Mezan's field investigations, at approximately 11:40am on Tuesday 14 September 2010, an IOF force positioned at the northern separation fence opened heavy fire on a peaceful demonstration organized by the Local Initiative in Beit Hanoun.
The demonstrations are organized weekly to protest the imposition of the so-called “security buffer zone”.
Demonstrators were about 300 meters from the separation fence when the IOF opened fire on them.
They were trying to fill a trench in the ground, which the IOF had dug on Thursday on 2 September 2010 during its incursion into that area.
The trench was two meters wide, tree meters deep, and about 800 meters long.
It was located about 300 meters from the northern separation fence, which suggests it marked the Israeli declared “security buffer zone” inside the Gaza Strip.
In a separate attack at approximately  5:10pm on Sunday 12 September 2010, the IOF fired three artillery shells at three Palestinian farmers who were in their land in the Shurab area northeast of Beit Hanoun town.
They were approximately 500 meters from the separation fence.
As a result, an elderly farmer, Ibrahim Abdullah Suleiman Abu Es'ayid, 91, his child grandson Hussam Khalid Abu Es'ayid, 16, and Ismail Waleed Mohammed Abu Owda, 16, were killed.
According to Al Mezan's field investigations, Abu Es'ayid and his grandson were gazing sheep in their lands west of the Shabat land in the area.
Abu Owda was also grazing sheep in his land west of the Abu Es'ayid family’s land when the IOF fired artillery shells at them.
Thirty minutes after the attack, the elderly Abu Es'ayid and Abu Owda were admitted to the hospital.
Abu Owda's head was separated from his body and medical teams could not find it.
Medical teams found the dead body of the child Abu Es'ayid more than an hour after the attack.
On the next day, people found the head of the Abu Owda.
25 goats belonging to the Abu Owda family and 18 goats belonging to the Abu after family were also killed in the attack.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly condemns these Israeli flagrant violations of the international law, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 1949.
Al Mezan calls on the international community to take prompt and urgent actions to ensure protection of Palestinian civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
Al Mezan calls on the international community to intervene to stop the IOF enforcing of the security buffer zone inside the Gaza Strip.
This conduct contradicts international law.
The means and methods employed by Israel to enforce it are lethal and gravely violate international law.
The enforcement of this zone has had serious humanitarian impacts on the population of the Gaza Strip, but especially for the farmers communities who live or have lands near the border.
  Ends