Fresh Gaza-Israel border unrest injures 20

About 20 Palestinians were injured in unrest with Israeli forces at Gaza’s border on Wednesday, medical sources said, but the protest was more muted than a weekend demonstration that left dozens wounded.

Israel’s army had reinforced its Gaza division following Saturday’s border violence, that left an Israeli officer in critical condition from a gunshot wound and killed a 32-year-old Palestinian.

There were indications that Hamas Islamists, who have ruled the Israeli-blockaded strip since 2007, wanted to prevent Wednesday’s protest from escalating. 

Hamas security personnel formed a human chain seeking to prevent Palestinians from approaching the border fence, although clashes with Israeli troops erupted when some people broke through the barrier, lobbing grenades and stones at soldiers, an AFP reporter said.

Gaza medical sources said the Israelis fired live rounds in response, causing injuries.

Israel’s army said on Twitter that roughly 1,000 “rioters and demonstrators” turned out on Wednesday and that some “hurled explosives and burnt tyres.”

Other estimates put the crowd size at 3,000.

– Tense ceasefire –

Mourners in Gaza on Wednesday held the funeral of Osama Khaled Deaih, who died earlier in the day after being shot by Israeli forces during the protests on Saturday.

Speaking to AFP ahead of Wednesday’s demonstration, Israeli army spokesman Amnon Shefler said: “We are not going to allow these violent riots to happen again, like they did on Saturday,” during which soldiers faced deadly threats. 

Israel hit four Hamas targets with air strikes late Saturday and again overnight Monday-Tuesday, in response to incendiary balloon launches that sparked multiple fires in Israel’s southern Eskhol region.

There were no reported casualties from the latest Israeli strikes.

Egypt, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, closed its Rafah crossing to Gaza after Saturday’s violence, a punitive measure seen as a message to Hamas that it did not want the protest movement to escalate.

The protests have come three months after an Egypt-brokered ceasefire ended 11 days of conflict between Hamas and Israel, the worst fighting between the two sides in years.

Hamas authorities said 260 Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes during the conflict, including fighters.

Palestinian groups launched thousands of rockets at Israel during the fighting, killing 13 people, including a soldier, according to the military and police. 

In 2018, Gazans began a protest movement demanding an end to Israel’s blockade and the right for Palestinians to return to lands they fled or were expelled from when the Jewish state was founded.

The Hamas-backed weekly demonstrations, often violent, sputtered as Israel killed some 350 Palestinians in Gaza over more than a year.