Gaza City: Palestinian organization Hamas, as well as other groups in the Gaza Strip, have called for protests at the border fence with Israel later on Wednesday against the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
According to official reports, 41 Palestinians and one Israeli border police officer were injured in confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers on Saturday. The Israeli air force later attacked Hamas targets in Gaza, according to Israeli military sources.
The clashes in the border zone on Saturday were the most violent since 2019, when Palestinians held the last of their weekly protests against the blockade and for the Palestinian right to return to homes that they had fled during the conflict when Israel was founded in1948.
A Palestinian has died from injuries sustained during weekend clashes with Israeli forces on the Gaza border, the territory’s health ministry said, ahead of fresh protests called for Wednesday.
Following Saturday’s unrest — which wounded dozens and left an Israeli police officer in critical condition — 32-year-old Palestinian Osama Khaled Deaih died after being shot by Israeli forces, the ministry said.
The Israeli army said it responded with live fire and other measures to Palestinian “rioters” who were hurling explosives over the border fence and attempting to scale it.
The territory’s rulers Hamas said that among the wounded was a 13-year-old boy who was shot in the head and left in critical condition.
The protests come three months after an informal truce ended 11 days of conflict between Hamas and Israel, the worst fighting between the two sides in years.
In 2018, Gazans began a protest movement demanding an end to Israel’s blockade and the right for Palestinians to return to lands they fled or were expelled from when the Jewish state was founded.
The Hamas-backed weekly demonstrations, often violent, sputtered as Israel killed some 350 Palestinians in Gaza over more than a year. — agencies
