A Palestinian protester was killed and 49 were wounded by Israeli army fire during demonstrations on the Gaza-Israel border, the Gaza Health Ministry has said.

The death brings to 41 the number of protesters killed since weekly border rallies began in late March. More than 1,700 protesters have been wounded by army fire during that period.

The ministry identified the protester killed on Friday as a 40-year-old man who was shot in the chest east of the southern town of Khan Younis.

It said seven of the 49 protesters hit by Israeli fire were in a serious condition and that dozens of others were overcome by tear gas inhalation.

The protest came just three days ahead of what the leader of Gaza’s ruling Hamas group has said will be a march by tens of thousands who could burst through the border fence into Israel.</s>JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said it would almost double the number of troops surrounding the Gaza Strip and in the occupied West Bank to tackle Palestinian protests against Monday's (May 14) controversial opening of a US embassy in Jerusalem.

Three additional infantry brigades will be deployed next week, two around the Gaza Strip and one in the West Bank, army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters on Saturday.

The move nearly doubles the number of fighting units currently serving, he said, without giving specific figures on troops to be deployed.

The announcement does not concern Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, where responding to protests is the responsibility of the police.

US President Donald Trump will not attend the opening of the new embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, but his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law and key adviser Jared Kushner will.

A signature campaign promise, Trump's December announcement of the embassy move led to major protests in Gaza and the West Bank.

Palestinians consider the eastern part of the city as their capital.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are expected to protest along the Gaza border Monday, with the strip's Islamist rulers Hamas voicing support in recent days for attempts to breach the fence into Israel.

"What's the problem with hundreds of thousands breaking through a fence that is not a border?" the organisation's Gaza head Yahya Sinwar said, arguing Israel has never defined its borders.

Palestinians in Gaza have been protesting for seven weeks to be able to return to their historic homes they fled in 1948 and which later became part of Israel.

A 15-year-old teenager who was shot in the head Friday succumbed to his wounds on Saturday evening, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said.

The death brought to 54 the number of Palestinians killed since clashes began on March 30, with hundreds of others injured.

No Israelis have been injured.

Israel has vowed to use the necessary force to prevent any breach on Monday and has accused Hamas of using the protests as a pretext to carry out attacks.

On Saturday Conricus said the rules of engagement had not been changed.

The United Nations and the European Union have called for an independent investigation into the deaths, but the Jewish state has rebuffed them.

The United States has defended its ally and accused Hamas of using Palestinians, including children, as human shields by encouraging them to protest along the border.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008.

Separately Saturday Israeli aircraft carried out a number of strikes against what the army said was a Hamas attack tunnel near the Gaza border.</s>GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of Gaza residents are gathering near the border with Israel for a seventh weekly protest aimed at shaking off a decade-old blockade of their territory.

Friday's protest comes just three days ahead of what the Hamas leader of Gaza says will be a march by tens of thousands who could burst through the border fence into Israel. Yehiyeh Sinwar has said Monday's crowd will be unarmed and peaceful, but also compared it to a "starving tiger."

The Hamas-led demonstrations, fueled by despair in Gaza, are part of a campaign to break the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007.

Israel says it will prevent any border breach. Forty protesters were killed and more than 1,700 wounded by Israeli troops since late March.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said Saturday it was shutting down its main cargo crossing into Gaza after Palestinian protesters caused extensive damage to it, and that it had also destroyed an attack tunnel militants dug near its main pedestrian crossing.

The twin developments come ahead of a potentially charged week along the Israel-Gaza border as weekly protests being staged there are expected to culminate with a potential breach of the border and a surge in casualties.

Once again, thousands of Palestinians protested Friday in various locations along the frontier. Later, a group of Palestinians burned a fuel complex and conveyor belt on their side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, causing more than $9 million in damages and disrupting the import of diesel fuel and building materials, the military said. It said the attack rendered the main fuel and gas lines unusable and caused further damage to electrical infrastructure and other vital equipment.

The military said the Kerem Shalom crossing will be closed until further notice and not before the damage is repaired.

A lengthy closing of the crossing would deliver further devastation to Gaza's already dire humanitarian crisis. The fuel installation is the only way to bring diesel fuel into Gaza for operating generators for hospitals and other key facilities. The military distributed a video showing Palestinians cheering as a fire was set. It was the second such attack on the facility in a week, it said. "Hamas continues to lead the residents of Gaza to destroy the only assistance they receive," the army said.

Late Saturday, the military carried out several airstrikes in the northern Gaza strip, near the Erez border crossing, to destroy a Hamas tunnel that was being built there. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said the tunnel was being tracked for weeks and had been destroyed just a few meters (feet) inside Gaza. It's the sixth such Hamas tunnel Israel has destroyed in as many months thanks to the military's new technological means to detect and destroy them.

Hamas called the airstrikes a "failed attempt" to prevent it protests.

"Our people's response will come on Monday by marching" to the fence, it said in a statement.

Conricus said both incidents proved Israel's long-standing claim that Hamas, and other militant groups, were merely using the popular mass protests as cover for attacks against Israel. He said the military was doubling its troops along the border in advance of this week's protests and that Israel would not allow the area to become an active combat zone.

"This really shows the cynicism of the Hamas terror organization toward the citizens they are supposed to care for," Conricus told reporters. "Hamas is killing Gaza with its terrorist activities against civilian facilities."

An extended closing of the cargo crossing could be particularly painful. Cooking gas and fuel, which are delivered to Gaza through Kerem Shalom on a daily basis, are the first and most essential items likely to be affected. A fear of shortage had already engulfed Gaza late Saturday, as more cars were lining up at gas station to stock on diesel and gasoline.

The Hamas-run petrol authority in Gaza ordered that cooking gas not be provided to people with canisters on Sunday. "This is to measure how much we have and to see how much this can serve the citizens," said Khalil Shaqfa of the petrol authority.

Palestinians in Gaza have been staging weekly protests at the border fence against a decade-old blockade of the territory. The demonstrations have been organized by Gaza's Hamas rulers, but are fueled by despair among the territory's 2 million residents. The vast majority are barred from travel and trade, while the blockade has gutted the economy.

A Palestinian was killed and 175 were wounded by Israeli army fire on Friday. The Palestinian health ministry said a teenage boy died Saturday after he was shot in the head by Israeli fire on the Gaza-Israel border.

The death raises to 42 the number of Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces since weekly protests began on March 30. More than 1,800 have been wounded. The coming week could see a further uptick in violence, as Palestinians are planning much larger protests to coincide with the United States relocating its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem on Monday and the 70th anniversary of their "nakba," or catastrophe — referring to their mass uprooting during the Mideast war over Israel's 1948 creation — on Tuesday.

Israel says it has a right to defend its border and has accused Hamas of using the protests as a cover for attacking the border. Rights groups say the use of potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters is unlawful.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008. During the most recent conflict in 2014, Israel destroyed 32 tunnels and it has placed a high priority on halting the tunnel threat since Hamas infiltrated Israel during the war. Although they did not manage to reach civilian areas, the infiltrations caught Israel off guard, with one attack killing five soldiers, and terrified the local population.

Israel is building a subterranean barrier to detect and prevent attack tunnels. Israel says the barrier, as well as new technological innovations, have rendered the Hamas tunnel project futile.</s>GAZA, May 11 (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed one Palestinian and wounded at least 170 protesters in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical workers said, bringing to 44 the number killed during a six-week protest at the Gaza-Israel border.

The man killed was protesting east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said medics, who said that seven other people were critically injured, including a 16-year-old youth who was shot in the face.

Organisers of the protest, called the "Great March of Return," said they expected tens of thousands of Gazans at tented border encampments in the coming days.

The protests peak on Fridays and are building to a climax on May 15, the day Palestinians call the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe", marking the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.

Witnesses said Israeli soldiers used a drone to down flaming kites that protesters flew over the border in a bid to torch bushes and distract snipers.

A report by the aid charity Save the Children, published on Friday, said that at least 250 Gazan children had been hit with live bullets during the protests, among nearly 700 children injured overall. The analysis was based on data collected by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Israel has been criticised by human rights groups for its lethal response to the protests. The Israeli military said on Friday its troops were defending the border and "firing in accordance with the rules of engagement".

Protesters were "violent, burning tires and hurling rocks," it said in a statement. Israel's military "will not allow any harm to the security infrastructure or security fence and will continue standing by its mission to defend and ensure the security of the citizens of Israel and Israeli sovereignty, as necessary."

The Gaza Strip, home to 2 million people, is run by the Islamist group Hamas which has fought three wars against Israel in the past decade. Israel and Egypt maintain an economic blockade of the strip, which has the highest unemployment rate in the world and has become far poorer than the other main Palestinian territory, the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

On Thursday in Gaza, Hamas leader Yehya Al-Sinwar described the protests as peaceful, and said: "We hope these incidents will pass without a large number of martyrs and wounded, and the occupation forces must restrain themselves."

Samir, a refugee whose grandfather originally came from Jaffa, which now lies 40 miles up the coast in Israel, rolled tyres towards the area close to the fence where he later burned them.

"My grandfather told me about Jaffa, where he came from, he said it was the bride of the sea, the most beautiful of all. I want to go back to Jaffa," he said.

"Killing me will not change anything, Jaffa will remain Jaffa. They need to kill every last one of us to change the facts." (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Writing by Ori Lewis Editing by Catherine Evans and Peter Graff)</s>GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed a Palestinian and hundreds of others were hurt on Friday, Palestinian medical workers said, bringing to 44 the number killed during a six-week protest at the Gaza-Israel border.

The protests are building to a climax on May 15, the day Palestinians call the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe”, marking the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.

Organisers of the protest, called the “Great March of Return”, said they expected tens of thousands of Gazans at tented border encampments in the coming days.

The man killed was protesting east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Seven people were critically hurt, including a 16-year-old who was shot in the face, Gaza medics said.

Of total number 971 needing treatment, 176 were hit by live bullets, they said. Others suffered the effects of teargas or were hit by rubber bullets or shrapnel.

Israel has been criticised by human rights groups for its lethal response to the protests.

A report by the aid charity Save the Children, published on Friday, said that during the protests, at least 250 Gazan children had been hit with live bullets, among nearly 700 children injured overall. The analysis was based on data collected by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

An Israeli army spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the report.

The Israeli military said on Friday its troops were defending the border and “firing in accordance with the rules of engagement”.

The military said protesters were “violent, burning tyres and hurling rocks” and that it “will not allow any harm to the security infrastructure or security fence and will continue standing by its mission to defend and ensure the security of the citizens of Israel and Israeli sovereignty, as necessary”.

Before the protests ended for the day, dozens of demonstrators broke into the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom goods crossing where humanitarian supplies are delivered to Gaza and ignited a pipeline that delivers gas from Israel and torched a goods conveyor belt, causing damage estimated at more than $9 million, Israeli officials said.

Witnesses said Israeli soldiers used a drone to down flaming kites that protesters flew over the border in a bid to torch bushes and distract snipers.

The Gaza Strip, home to 2 million people, is run by the Islamist group Hamas which has fought three wars against Israel in the past decade. Israel and Egypt maintain an economic blockade of the strip, which has the highest unemployment rate in the world and has become far poorer than the other main Palestinian territory, the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

On Thursday in Gaza, Hamas leader Yehya Al-Sinwar described the protests as peaceful, and said: “We hope these incidents will pass without a large number of martyrs and wounded, and the occupation forces must restrain themselves.”

Samir, a refugee whose grandfather originally came from Jaffa, which now lies 40 miles up the coast in Israel, rolled tyres towards the area close to the fence where he later burnt them.

“My grandfather told me about Jaffa, where he came from, he said it was the bride of the sea, the most beautiful of all. I want to go back to Jaffa,” he said.

“Killing me will not change anything, Jaffa will remain Jaffa. They need to kill every last one of us to change the facts.”</s>(JERUSALEM) — The Israeli military said Saturday it was shutting down its main cargo crossing into Gaza after Palestinian protesters caused extensive damage to it, and that it had also destroyed an attack tunnel militants dug near its main pedestrian crossing.

The twin developments come ahead of a potentially charged week along the Israel-Gaza border as weekly protests being staged there are expected to culminate with a potential breach of the border and a surge in casualties.

Once again, thousands of Palestinians protested Friday in various locations along the frontier. Later, a group of Palestinians burned a fuel complex and conveyor belt on their side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, causing more than $9 million in damages and disrupting the import of diesel fuel and building materials, the military said. It said the attack rendered the main fuel and gas lines unusable and caused further damage to electrical infrastructure and other vital equipment.

The military said the Kerem Shalom crossing will be closed until further notice and not before the damage is repaired.

A lengthy closing of the crossing would deliver further devastation to Gaza’s already dire humanitarian crisis. The fuel installation is the only way to bring diesel fuel into Gaza for operating generators for hospitals and other key facilities. The military distributed a video showing Palestinians cheering as a fire was set. It was the second such attack on the facility in a week, it said. “Hamas continues to lead the residents of Gaza to destroy the only assistance they receive,” the army said.

Late Saturday, the military carried out several airstrikes in the northern Gaza strip, near the Erez border crossing, to destroy a Hamas tunnel that was being built there. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said the tunnel was being tracked for weeks and had been destroyed just a few meters (feet) inside Gaza. It’s the sixth such Hamas tunnel Israel has destroyed in as many months thanks to the military’s new technological means to detect and destroy them.

Hamas called the airstrikes a “failed attempt” to prevent it protests.

“Our people’s response will come on Monday by marching” to the fence, it said in a statement.

Conricus said both incidents proved Israel’s long-standing claim that Hamas, and other militant groups, were merely using the popular mass protests as cover for attacks against Israel. He said the military was doubling its troops along the border in advance of this week’s protests and that Israel would not allow the area to become an active combat zone.

“This really shows the cynicism of the Hamas terror organization toward the citizens they are supposed to care for,” Conricus told reporters. “Hamas is killing Gaza with its terrorist activities against civilian facilities.”

An extended closing of the cargo crossing could be particularly painful. Cooking gas and fuel, which are delivered to Gaza through Kerem Shalom on a daily basis, are the first and most essential items likely to be affected. A fear of shortage had already engulfed Gaza late Saturday, as more cars were lining up at gas station to stock on diesel and gasoline.

The Hamas-run petrol authority in Gaza ordered that cooking gas not be provided to people with canisters on Sunday. “This is to measure how much we have and to see how much this can serve the citizens,” said Khalil Shaqfa of the petrol authority.

Palestinians in Gaza have been staging weekly protests at the border fence against a decade-old blockade of the territory. The demonstrations have been organized by Gaza’s Hamas rulers, but are fueled by despair among the territory’s 2 million residents. The vast majority are barred from travel and trade, while the blockade has gutted the economy.

A Palestinian was killed and 175 were wounded by Israeli army fire on Friday. The Palestinian health ministry said a teenage boy died Saturday after he was shot in the head by Israeli fire on the Gaza-Israel border.

The death raises to 42 the number of Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces since weekly protests began on March 30. More than 1,800 have been wounded. The coming week could see a further uptick in violence, as Palestinians are planning much larger protests to coincide with the United States relocating its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem on Monday and the 70th anniversary of their “nakba,” or catastrophe — referring to their mass uprooting during the Mideast war over Israel’s 1948 creation — on Tuesday.

Israel says it has a right to defend its border and has accused Hamas of using the protests as a cover for attacking the border. Rights groups say the use of potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters is unlawful.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008. During the most recent conflict in 2014, Israel destroyed 32 tunnels and it has placed a high priority on halting the tunnel threat since Hamas infiltrated Israel during the war. Although they did not manage to reach civilian areas, the infiltrations caught Israel off guard, with one attack killing five soldiers, and terrified the local population.

Israel is building a subterranean barrier to detect and prevent attack tunnels. Israel says the barrier, as well as new technological innovations, have rendered the Hamas tunnel project futile.</s>GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gaza activists burned tires near the sealed border with Israel on Friday in a seventh weekly protest aimed at shaking off a decade-old blockade of their territory. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas volleys from the other side of the border fence.

The protest came just three days ahead of what the leader of Gaza’s ruling Hamas group has said will be a march by tens of thousands who could burst through the border fence into Israel. The crowd on Monday will be unarmed and peaceful, but like a “starving tiger” in pent-up anger and unpredictability, Yehiyeh Sinwar told foreign reporters Thursday.

Israel has warned that it will prevent any border breach. It has stuck to its open-fire policies, such as targeting “main instigators” and those approaching the fence, despite growing international criticism. Israel says it has a right to defend its border and has accused Hamas of using the protests as a cover for attacking the border. Rights group say the use of potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters is unlawful.

Since the Hamas-led marches began in late March, 40 Palestinian protests have been killed and more than 1,700 wounded by Israel army fire. The protests, driven by despair among Gaza’s 2 million people, are part of a campaign to break the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant Hamas overran Gaza in 2007.

There are growing concerns that if Israel and Hamas dig in, a widespread border breach in coming days could lead to large numbers of casualties.

Monday’s border march is meant to protest the planned move of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem that day.

The embassy’s inauguration comes five months after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a move that outraged Palestinians as blatantly pro-Israel.

The Israeli-annexed eastern sector of Jerusalem is sought as a future Palestinian capital — at least by those supporting Hamas’ political rival, West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas seeks an Islamic state in the entire historic Palestine, including what is now Israel, but has said it is ready for a long-term truce.

Another large-scale protest is planned for Tuesday, when Palestinians mark their “nakba,” or catastrophe, referring to their mass uprooting during the Mideast war over Israel’s 1948 creation. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven out or fled homes in what is now Israel. More than two-thirds of Gaza residents are descendants of refugees.

On Friday, hundreds of protesters gathered in five tent camps set up weeks ago, each several hundred meters (yards) from the border.

From one of the camps, east of Gaza City, dozens moved closer to the fence. Some burned tires they had stashed in a ditch, releasing large plumes of black smoke. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas.

Witnesses said Israeli forces on the other side of the fence had added reinforcements, including cement slabs, as protective cover.

In recent weeks, soldiers have fired from behind sand berms.</s>GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of Gaza residents are gathering near the border with Israel for a seventh weekly protest aimed at shaking off a decade-old blockade of their territory.

Friday’s protest comes just three days ahead of what the Hamas leader of Gaza says will be a march by tens of thousands who could burst through the border fence into Israel. Yehiyeh Sinwar has said Monday’s crowd will be unarmed and peaceful, but also compared it to a “starving tiger.”

The Hamas-led demonstrations, fueled by despair in Gaza, are part of a campaign to break the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007.

Israel says it will prevent any border breach. Forty protesters were killed and more than 1,700 wounded by Israeli troops since late March.</s>The 1-kilometer tunnel was only meters away from the border fence near the Erez crossing into Israel and a short distance away from a kibbutz, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman.

This is the sixth tunnel destroyed in the past six months. Conricus said the tunnel took months to build and that the military had been tracking its construction for a number of weeks.

"Hamas is spreading messages of its desire for a long-term cease-fire but actually digs terror tunnels into the territory of the State of Israel," said Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Twitter. "We're not buying this bluff. We will continue, like this evening, to strike the terror infrastructure."

The destruction of the tunnel comes before what's expected to be a volatile week in Israel and the Palestinian territories. On Monday, the US will officially open its embassy in Jerusalem in a move that is expected to spark protests across the region. On Tuesday, Palestinians mark what they call the "Nakba" or Catastrophe, in memory of the more than 700,000 Palestinians who were either driven from, or fled, their homes during the Arab-Israeli war that accompanied the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. And the Muslim month of Ramadan also starts this week, which regularly brings a spike in tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.

Asked about the timing of the tunnel's destruction coming right before these events, Conricus said, "We were assessing where it was going and collecting intelligence, but when it got close enough to threaten the crossing and a kibbutz, we decided to strike." The world's press needs to put Netanyahu on notice Israel has increased troops around Gaza and in the West Bank for the week, deploying two extra brigades to the Gaza border and one throughout the West Bank, said Conricus, calling it a "very significant enhancement of what's already there." In a statement, Hamas slammed Israel after the strike on the tunnel, saying, "The Israeli bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip is a miserable and failed attempt to prevent the participation of our masses in the major 'March of Return' and to break the siege on May 14th." Gazans have been protesting along the Israel-Gaza border for more than six weeks. Palestinians are calling for an end to Israel's blockade of the territory and their right to return to lands their families fled or were expelled from during Israel's founding seven decades ago. Israel says the demonstrations are orchestrated by Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. On Friday, the IDF said, rioters in Gaza damaged the Kerem Shalom crossing , which is the only facility used to transfer goods and fuel into Gaza, forcing the crossing's closure. Since they began in March, more than 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, according to a CNN count based on figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. No Israeli soldiers have been killed or injured.
The Israeli Air Force destroys a Hamas tunnel more than a kilometer long that headed from Beit Hanun, Gaza towards Israel.