GAZA/TEL AVIV: A 25-year-old Palestinian has been killed in renewed confrontations on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.
The man died in hospital on Saturday from injuries he received the day before to the east of Khan Younis, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said.
More than 70 Palestinians were injured on Friday at the border, more than half of them by gunfire from Israeli soldiers.
An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said on Saturday that some 6,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had gathered at various locations along the border fence with Israel the previous day. Rioters threw hand grenades and explosive devices at the border fence, she said.
An Israeli soldier was injured and a military vehicle was damaged.
Since the end of March 2018, more than 300 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers, according to the Department of Health.
Missiles are repeatedly fired on Israel from the Gaza Strip, to which the Israelis respond mostly with air raids.
Among other things, the Palestinians are demanding a lifting of the blockade that Israel and Egypt have imposed on the Gaza Strip.
They also call for a return of Palestinian refugees to present-day Israel.
Israeli air strikes and shelling devastated entire districts of Gaza in that conflict, as Hamas and other groups launched rockets at heartland cities in Israel, which along with Egypt maintains a blockade of Gaza, citing security concerns.
More than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed, according to Gaza health officials, while Israel put the number of its own dead at 67 soldiers and six civilians. “Israel is the prime source of our misery but (internal Palestinian) division is a main reason too,” Khalaf said, referring to economic sanctions imposed by the Palestinian Authority to pressure Hamas to share power. — Agencies
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