IDF soldiers shot and wounded two Arab men from Gaza, one seriously and one moderately, in separate incidents Friday afternoon, AFP reported.

The military said soldiers opened fire to break up a violent demonstration by several Gazans who were throwing rocks at soldiers and rolling burning tires at the border fence.

“During continuous attempts to disperse the riot soldiers fired toward the main instigators’ lower extremities,” an IDF spokeswoman told AFP.

The Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported that Friday’s shootings followed protests that broke out after the funeral procession of 16-year-old Adnan Abu Khater, a teen Gaza who died earlier on Friday after being shot by Israeli soldiers on Thursday.

The teen was shot in the leg when he tried to destroy the security fence. He was shot after he refused orders to desist.

An IDF spokeswoman told AFP of Thursday’s incident that soldiers identified “a number of suspects” damaging the border fence.

She said the soldiers asked them to halt “numerous times but the suspects continued vandalizing the fence” and they then opened fire and reported hitting a suspect.

According to Ma’an, the two men who were shot Friday are a 21-year-old man who was taken to the Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza with moderate injuries.

A spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health said that another 26-year-old man was shot in the back by Israeli soldiers in a watchtower in the same area.

On Thursday, a rocket launched by terrorists in the Hamas-ruled territory exploded in one of the communities along the Gaza security fence. No injuries or damage were reported.

Several hours later, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck several targets in Gaza.

According to an IDF statement, the aircraft targeted a terror infrastructure site in central Gaza and three concealed rocket launchers in northern Gaza. All aircraft safely returned to their bases.

Only several days ago, the IAF struck multiple terror targets in Gaza, in response to the murder by a Gazan sniper of 22 year-old Salah Shukri Abu Latyef .

There has been a recent escalation in terror attacks, and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has warned Hamas that Israel’s patience with rocket attacks – and over its role in the wave of terror rolling across Israel – has begun to wane.

“I advise Hamas to not test our patience,” Yaalon warned. “If there won’t be quiet in Israel, there won’t be quiet in Gaza either.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has also issued a warning to Arab terrorists, saying that Israel should not be tested.

View original Arutz Sheva publication at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/175893#.Ush5QrSPlgi