Friday, 27 April 2018

IDF kills 3 Palestinians on Gaza border as hundreds try to breach fence



GAZA – Israeli forces shot dead three Palestinians during protests along the border with Gaza on Friday, local health officials said, after hundreds of Gazans tried to cross into Israeli territory.


Protesters hurled explosives, including grenades and firebombs, and rocks at the fence in an attempt to set it on fire, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.



The IDF maintains soldiers operated in accordance with the rules of engagement to thwart the “infiltration.”


“IDF troops have used riot dispersal means and have fired in accordance with the rules of engagement. The IDF operates to protect Israeli civilians and will not allow the security infrastructure that protects [civilians] to be damaged.”


The latest fatality brought the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli troops to 41 since protests began on March 30 — protests that Palestinians hope will shine a light onto their demand that their descendants be allowed to return to lands inside Israel. The number of protesters usually swells to several thousands after Friday prayers.


Gaza medical officials said two protesters who were struck by bullets were in critical condition in hospital and 600 others were wounded.


The Israeli military said 12,000-14,000 Gazans were participating in what it described as “riots,” and that some had tried to breach the border into Israel. It said troops “had operated in accordance with the rules of engagement” to stop people crossing the border.


The Gaza health ministry said 200 were wounded by gun fire, including a Palestinian journalist who was hit in the foot by a bullet.


Dozens more, including four medics, were treated for gas inhalation, as Israeli forces showered the area with tear gas canisters from behind their fortifications in Israel.


Protesters hurled stones and rolled burning tires toward the fence, and some attached cans of burning petrol to kites and flew them into Israeli territory.


Others cleared away barbed wire coils which Israeli troops had placed in Gazan territory overnight in a bid to create a buffer zone between protesters and the fence.


After dark, Hamas said an Israeli drone fired missiles at two boats moored off the Gaza shore and caused damage. No casualties were reported. An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment.


Palestinian media also reported a Palestinian journalist wearing a vest marked “Press” was shot and wounded by IDF forces. The Jerusalem Post has not yet confirmed the report.





A Palestinian journalist who was shot by Israeli forces while covering a protest nearly two weeks ago died of his wounds on Wednesday, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.


Photos released by the IDF showed Palestinians attempting to take apart the security fence, and tweets circulating in Arabic appeared to show children participating in the attempted infiltration as they dragged barbed wire away from the border.





In a statement released earlier on Friday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein called the loss of life was “deplorable” and that a “staggering number of injuries” had been caused by live ammunition.





Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon accused al-Hussein of hypocrisy.


“The High Commissioner’s decision to condemn a democracy that is diligently defending its sovereignty, while completely ignoring the terrorists of Hamas as they use children for human shields, provides a tailwind for terror and encourages the continued exploitation of civilians,” Danon said.  “This statement proves once again that High Commissioner is not focused on human rights, but only with obsessively criticizing Israel.”


Israel’s foreign ministry tweeted condemnation of the Hamas-organized march.





Named the ‘Great March of Return’, the protest action revives a longstanding demand for the right of return of Palestinian refugees to towns and villages which their families fled from, or were driven out of, when the state of Israel was created in 1948.


It has seen tent encampments spring up at several locations near the Israeli-imposed restricted zone along the 40km (25-mile) border fence and is scheduled to culminate on May 15, when Palestinians mark Nakba Day, or the Day of Catastrophe, commemorating their displacement 70 years ago.



More than 2 million Palestinians are packed into the narrow coastal enclave. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but maintains tight control of its land and sea borders. Egypt also restricts movement in and out of Gaza on its border.


Anna Ahronheim contributed to this report.





Article source: https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Israel-uses-tear-gas-on-Gaza-protesters-amid-UN-condemnation-552903


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