Fourteen Gaza protesters injured in shootings along border with Israel
At least 14 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunmen during protests on Friday along the Gaza border, the territory’s Health Ministry said.
Thousands of demonstrators turned up for the protests but mainly kept their distance from the fortified border as a lull in deadly violence held after a truce deal last week.
Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al Qudra said 14 people were injured by Israeli soldiers along the border, including “a child shot in the chest east of Al Bureij refugee camp” in the central Gaza Strip.
Protesters did not launch burning tyres or balloons carrying burning materials towards Israel – tactics they have often used since the Friday protests began in March.
Demonstrators were told “to keep back from the separation fence and to maintain peaceful protests, to give a chance to Egyptian efforts to calm things down”, an organiser said.
It was the second straight Friday of less violent protests since an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on November 13 ended the worst flare-up between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers since a 2014 war.
Efforts to reach a more lasting truce have angered Israeli right-wing rivals of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It brought the government to the brink of collapse when the defence minister resigned last week and took his party out of the ruling coalition.
Mr Netanyahu was able to avoid snap elections when another key minister pledged on Monday to stay on board, despite sharp disagreements with the premier.
Gaza border tension has soared since the March 30 start of what the Palestinians call the “Great March of Return”, a mass protest demanding the right for Palestinians to return to homes from which they fled or were expelled during the war surrounding Israel’s creation.
Protesters are also demanding an end to the 11-year blockade of the territory and a have often moved right up to the border fence and occasionally breached it.
At least 235 Palestinians have been killed in the protests, mostly by Israeli gunfire on or near the border but also by air strikes. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same time.
A senior Hamas official said a delegation led by the group arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with Egyptian officials on stabilising the truce with Israel. They were also expected to address reconciliation between Hamas and its rival party Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
It was the second Friday of less violent protests since a truce announced on November 13