GAZA CITY
The Israeli artillery pounded Palestinian areas along the borders of the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Monday, with no causalities reported.
"Israeli artillery units stationed along the borders with the Gaza Strip fired tens of mortar shells as well as smoke and stun bombs at Palestinian farmlands," one witness told Anadolu Agency.
Witnesses said the Israeli shelling inflicted major damages on tens of Palestinian houses in the area while Palestinian crops took direct hits.
The artillery shelling coincided with Israeli airstrikes against several targets in the besieged coastal enclave.
At least 172 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since late Monday.
Some 1183 people have also been wounded in the Israeli aerial attacks.
Around 208 Israelis, meanwhile, were injured in rocket attacks from Gaza, according to Israel's national emergency response service.
Israel has launched a military operation – dubbed Operation Protective Edge - with the stated goal of ending rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Since then, Israeli warplanes have staged hundreds of airstrikes on the besieged enclave – home to around 1.8 million Palestinians - while ground troops remain amassed on the borders in advance of a possible ground assault.
Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, have continued to fire hundreds of rockets into Israel, some of which have reached Tel Aviv, in response to the ongoing offensive.
No Israeli fatalities have been reported thus far.
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