Hospital report: Palestinian instigator killed by IDF fire on Gaza border

IDF soldiers fired at legs when warnings failed to deter Palestinian inciters attempting to vandalize and possibly breach border fence.

Palestinian succumbs to wound & dies Saturday

By Reuters

One of six Palestinians shot and wounded by Israeli troops on Friday while protesting at the Gaza Strip boundary fence died on Saturday, hospital officials said.

A Hamas police officer prevents Palestinians to approach near the Israeli Gaza border fence.

A Hamas police officer prevents Palestinians to approach near the Israeli Gaza border fence in east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, Nov. 23, 2012. – Photo by AP

 

The fortified fence and a 300-metre-deep zone on the Palestinian side – on which Israel has fired with the declared aim of keeping gunmen and infiltrators away from the border – have been a testing ground for the November 21 truce that ended the eight days of escalated fighting between the sides.

Gaza’s Hamas government has said the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire that followed Operation Pillar of Defense would put an end to the Israeli no-go zone, allowing Palestinian farmers back to their land there. Israel has said it would back off if Palestinians did not threaten to strike across the boundary.

Asked about Friday’s shootings near the southern town of Rafah, an Israeli military spokeswoman said Palestinians had come up to the fence to vandalize it. Soldiers warned them away, and when that did not deter them, shot at their legs, she said.

Palestinians described the incident as a demonstration, saying that six people were wounded by the Israeli gunfire. One of them, a 21-year-old man, died on Saturday, hospital officials in Gaza said.

Islamist Hamas remains hostile to the Jewish state but has on at least one occasion sent police to evacuate such protests since the cease-fire, saying it sought both to shore up the truce and prevent Palestinian casualties.

 

View original HAARETZ publication at: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-dies-of-wounds-from-idf-fire-on-gaza-border-medics-say-1.481744