One killed at Gaza border by Israeli fire, two in West Bank -Palestinian officials
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man along the Gaza-Israel border on Tuesday and killed two Palestinians in clashes in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said.
The Palestinian killed in Gaza was the first such fatality in what has recently become almost daily confrontations along the frontier after months of relative calm.
A statement from the Israeli military said “hundreds of rioters gathered in a violent riot adjacent to the security fence in the Gaza Strip.”
“During the incident, a number of explosive devices were activated by the rioters,” the statement said, but did not confirm the death.
Health officials said 25-year-old Youssef Radwan was shot in the neck at the border and died in a hospital and that 11 more people were wounded in the violence.
Separately, two Palestinians were killed and at least 10 were wounded in clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian officials said.
The Israeli military said its drone had struck in Jenin but did not confirm the casualties.
Over the past few weeks the military said its soldiers had been using riot dispersal means against Palestinians throwing explosives at the border fence.
Last week, five Palestinians were killed at the border by an explosive device detonated accidentally by demonstrators who were planning to use it against Israeli forces.
Hamas, the Islamist armed group that rules Gaza, has been supportive of the border rallies. Organizers on Tuesday said they were held in protests of Jewish visits to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.
Others were called in support of Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel and an Israeli blockade on the narrow coastal territory, home to around 2.3 million Palestinians whose economy is buckling under the restrictions.
Israel says its blockade is necessary to stop arms reaching Hamas, with which it has fought several wars since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from the small coastal enclave.
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