Gaza City – Palestinians Say 2 Killed By Israel Fire At Gaza Border

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    Relatives of a Palestinian who was killed by Israeli troops at the Israel-Gaza border, react in Gaza August 17, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu MustafaGaza City – Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire and another 60 injured at a protest along the Gaza border amid ongoing Egyptian efforts to broker a cease-fire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Friday.

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    The protesters threw rocks and firebombs from behind clouds of black smoke of burning tires at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas and sometimes live fire.

    Israel’s military said some Palestinians also threw improvised explosives and firebombs at the fence and that several were spotted briefly crossing into Israeli territory. It said troops “fired live rounds selectively according to standard operating procedures.”

    Hamas officials have been meeting with Egyptian officials in Cairo for days, hammering out details of a possible truce with Israel.

    Israel and Hamas have come close to serious conflict in recent weeks after four months of violence along Gaza’s border. In several instances Gaza militants fired rockets and mortars at Israel which responded with airstrikes on Gaza.

    Hamas has led weekly border protests aimed in part at drawing attention to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas took control of Gaza. Large turnout at the protests has also been driven by widespread desperation in Gaza, amid worsening conditions linked to the blockade. Power is on for just a few hours a day, unemployment has sky-rocketed and poverty is widening.

    Abdelatif al-Qanou, a Hamas spokesman, said the protests forced Israel to reconsider its blockade policy. “Our people’s sacrifice in the protests will be translated into national achievements soon,” he said.

    Since the Gaza protests began at the end of March, 168 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including at least 125 protesters, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry and a local rights group. An Israeli soldier was killed by a Gaza sniper during this same period.

    Israel says it is defending its border and accuses Hamas, a group sworn to its destruction, of using the protests as cover for attempts to breach the border fence and attack civilians and soldiers. Palestinians have thrown explosive devices and opened fire at forces along the border in numerous instances over the past few months, the military says. But the high casualty rate among mainly unarmed protesters has drawn international criticism.

    Also Friday, Israeli police said officers shot and “neutralized” a 30-year-old man from an Arab town in Israel who tried to stab them as they were on duty in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israeli media said the attacker was killed.

    Police later released footage from a surveillance camera that shows a man walking along then suddenly pulling out a knife and lunging at the officers.

    Since 2015, Palestinians have killed over 50 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. Israeli forces killed over 260 Palestinians in that period, most of them attackers.

    These attacks were at times daily but have since significantly decreased.

    The Palestinians and human rights groups have accused Israeli forces of using excessive force in some confrontations and of killing Palestinians who did not pose an imminent deadly threat.


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    5 Comments
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    Vvvvv
    Vvvvv
    5 years ago

    Awww, boo hoo, all they did was come to the border to terrorize and torch Israel, and israel dared respond! Those mean old Israelis….

    takeittothem
    takeittothem
    5 years ago

    not enough

    grandbear
    grandbear
    5 years ago

    Excessive force is what the US and england used in WW2 with the bombing of dresden and hiroshima , not what israel is doing .These low life criminals don’t want a state , they want to destroy israel .The falestinians will never have a state, they are made up of several clans in different locations that will never be a cohesive nation , just warring tribes Truthfully speaking they don’t have an army they pay hired mercenaries to fight for them and kill for them .Their presidents are thieves , stealing most of the donated money.It was england and france that created the map of the middle east cobbling together various bedouin tribes , making kings that they thought to control , whyle despoiling the newly found oil supplies. The westerners fell in love with the heroic men riding on fine horses, brandishing swords it was so romantic to be near them ( see lawrence of arabia).

    concerned_Jew
    concerned_Jew
    5 years ago

    It’s simple. Stop attacking us, we stop attacking you! Simple, wake up people!

    concerned_Jew
    concerned_Jew
    5 years ago

    As long as they keep attacking Israel, the force is not excessive.