Gazan dies of wounds from Israel border clash

GAZA CITY: A Palestinian died on Saturday after being wounded by Israeli fire during a protest on the Gaza border against US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Health Ministry said.

Sharaf Shalash, 28, sustained bullet wounds last Sunday during a demonstration east of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said.

His death brings to 11 the number of Palestinians killed since US President Donald Trump announced on Dec. 6 that he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv.

Nine protesters have died in clashes with Israeli troops, two of them on Friday. Two others were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza earlier in the month.

Shalash and the two Palestinians killed on Friday were buried on Saturday, in Gaza City, Beit Hanun and Jabalia.

After the Shalash funeral in Jabalia, Palestinians went to the border with Israel where they threw stones at soldiers, who responded with tear gas and live bullets.

One Palestinian was wounded, Qudra said.

A UN General Assembly resolution passed on Thursday, rejecting US President Donald Trump's Dec. 6 Jerusalem declaration, did little to calm Palestinian anger over his reversal of decades-old US policy on the contested holy city.

Most countries regard the status of Jerusalem as a matter to be settled in an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, although that process is now stalled.

A total of 128 countries voted for the UN resolution. Nine opposed it and 35 abstained. Twenty-one countries did not cast a vote.