1 killed, hundreds injured at Gaza fence
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Thousands of Palestinians made their way to the fence separating Gaza from Israel again Friday, and Israeli soldiers again repulsed repeated attempts to cross or damage the barrier with tear gas and live fire, wounding hundreds. But by nightfall only one man was reported killed in the demonstrations, which had claimed dozens of lives on the two previous Fridays.
Nearly 1,000 protesters were wounded, including 223 from gunshots, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Tear gas sufferers included 10 nurses and paramedics in the southern city of Khan Younis. Islam Herzallah, 28, of Gaza City, was shot in the abdomen and killed, bringing the overall death toll to 35.
At the Shejaiya protest site east of Gaza City, where Herzallah was shot, demonstrators again used thick smoke from burning tires as cover, successfully dismantling an Israeli barrier of coiled barbed wire before retreating when Israeli soldiers shot at them.
Men and even some women, covered head to toe except for their faces, hurled rocks at the Israeli side.
The Israelis liberally lobbed tear gas canisters into the large crowd as far as 350 yards from the fence, sending men, women and children running, as a steady convoy of ambulances ferried away the injured.
The crowds were smaller than in the first two weeks of the protests, which began March 30 and are being held every Friday until May 15. They are objecting to Israel’s 11-year-old blockade of Gaza and seeking to revive international interest in Palestinian claims of a right of return to the lands they were displaced from in 1948.
But the sharp reduction in the death toll raised questions as to whether the Israelis, reacting to international criticism and demands for investigations into possible war crimes for firing live ammunition at mainly unarmed protesters, had required soldiers to take greater care in selecting targets.
The Israeli public radio station Kan, citing an unidentified military official, reported Friday that snipers had been ordered to shoot only at ankles and that every instance of gunfire was recorded by cameras fitted to gunsights. But Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an army spokesman, said its rules of engagement had not changed.