Israeli troops kill Palestinian near Gaza border

Sharelines

Gaza: Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said that a "suspect had approached a restricted area in the southern Gaza Strip."



Soldiers then "fired warning shots into the air, and when the suspect failed to halt, they fired shots towards him. He then fled the area," the spokeswoman said.



Gaza's health ministry said the man was a farmer who had been on his own land. Israel's military restricts Palestinians inside the Hamas-controlled territory from approaching the border, where violence frequently flares up.

</s>Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian officials said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said that a "suspect had approached a restricted area in the southern Gaza Strip."

Soldiers then "fired warning shots into the air, and when the suspect failed to halt, they fired shots towards him. He then fled the area," the spokeswoman said.

Gaza's health ministry said the man was a farmer who had been on his own land.

The area around the border fence between Gaza and Israel is the scene of frequent demonstrations by Palestinians to protest the Israeli blockade of the enclave.

There has also been a rise of tension following the controversial announcement made in December by U.S. President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The move has angered Palestinians who consider the east of the city as the capital of their future state.

U.N. Middle East peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov has warned that Gaza -- which also suffers from water and power cuts, unemployment and poverty -- was on the verge of "full collapse".</s>The border between the Gaza Strip and Israel in February, 2018.

A 59-year-old Palestinian farmer died after being shot by Israeli forces in Gaza on Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Strip said.

According to Palestinian reports, the man, Muhammad Atah Abu Jama, was shot while working on the agricultural plot of land he owned east of Khan Younis. The Palestinian Health Ministry said he was moderately injured by Israeli fire and evacuated to the hospital. His condition later deteriorated and doctors pronounced him dead.

According to the Israeli army, the man entered a restricted buffer zone and approached Gaza's border fence with Israel. He was shot after army forces feared he would try to cross.

Eyewitnesses quoted in Palestinian reports said the farmer was alone and there were no clashes in the area when he was shot by soldiers stationed at an observation post.

On Friday, clashes broke out in multiple locations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported 16 moderate to light wounded from live fire.

Last Sunday, a Palestinian man was shot to death by Israel Navy forces Sunday after the vessel he was on sailed past the authorized fishing zone off the northern Gaza Strip.

According to an IDF spokesman, the boat, which was carrying three men, did not respond to calls from the Israeli military before the latter opened fire. The two other men on board were detained for interrogation.</s>A farmer has been shot dead by Israeli troops while working on his land in Gaza strip, Palestinian health officials said. According to Israelis, however, the “suspect” approached a “restricted zone” and fled after being shot at.

The incident took place on Saturday near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. According to Palestinian health officials, a 59-year-old farmer was shot in the back by the Israeli Defiance Forces (IDF) while he was working on his land near the border fence. The man was gravely wounded and died hours after the shooting.

The IDF, however, has spun another story, stating that the troops identified a “suspect” approaching a restricted area near the border in the southern Gaza Strip. The servicemen then fired “warning shots into the air, and when the suspect failed to halt, they fired shots towards him,” an IDF spokeswoman said as quoted by Reuters. The “suspect” fled the area afterward, she added.

The incident comes only a week after IDF soldiers attacked a “suspicious” Palestinian fishing boat that breached the boundaries of a designated fishing zone. That shooting resulted in the death of one fisherman, while two others were detained for questioning.

Israel ramped up its security measures at the border with Gaza following an incident last month, when four IDF soldiers were injured in a blast. The soldiers were hit by an IED placed on the border fence and disguised as a flag.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been soaring since US President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy there. The move effectively violated UN resolutions on the status of Jerusalem and it was condemned by the majority of Muslim countries and other nations.</s>GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Palestinian Health Ministry says a farmer has died after being shot by Israeli troops near the Gaza border.

The ministry says the 59-year-old farmer was shot in the back Saturday as he worked his land near the border fence and died hours later from his wounds.

The Israeli military says it identified a suspect approaching a restricted area in the southern Gaza Strip and troops first fired warning shots into the air. When the suspect failed to halt, it said forces fired at him and he fled the area.

Israel has vowed to take stricter measures toward people approaching the fence after a bomb explosion wounded four soldiers there last month. Israel accused Palestinian demonstrators, who hold weekly protests there, of planting the device.</s>A Palestinian farmer was shot and injured by Israeli forces’ gunfire to the east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday. He later succumbed to his wounds.

According to the Israeli forces, the man, identified as Mohammed Ata Abu Jame, 59, was in a ‘restricted buffer zone’ and that they feared he could cross; however, according to local sources, he was injured by Israeli forces’ gunfire while he was working in his farm.</s>Army says IED similar to device that injured four troops on February 17, likely installed at same violent demonstration

The Israeli army on Thursday “neutralized” an improvised explosive device that had been set up on the security fence around the southern Gaza Strip, similar to one that injured four soldiers nearly two weeks ago, the army said.

The Israel Defense Forces would not specify how the bomb was disarmed, but Gaza residents told Palestinian media that it had been blown up in a controlled explosion by military sappers.

An army spokesperson said the IED was apparently installed during a violent demonstration along the border two weeks ago, as it was the same type as the one that wounded the four soldiers on February 17.

In that Saturday incident, four IDF soldiers were injured when they attempted to remove the IED, disguised as a flag, from the Gaza security fence near the city of Khan Younis.

As they pulled the device off the fence, it was apparently detonated remotely.

Two of the soldiers were seriously injured and two were moderately hurt. They were hit by shrapnel, sustaining wounds throughout their bodies, including their eyes, doctors said.

The army launched an investigation into the incident, specifically checking if the soldiers adhered to protocols for removing suspicious objects from the border fence.

In response to that attack, and to a rocket fired from Gaza that hit a home in southern Israel later that night, the IDF conducted a large series of strikes against 18 targets in the Strip, including on a tunnel in Gaza City, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said in the Knesset last month.

Last week, Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians warned Gazans that the army would respond more aggressively to riots along the security fence.

“We know that the violent clashes on the border are used as cover for terrorist activity, as happened last Saturday. And we will not allow such an event to happen again,” Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai told Palestinians in an Arabic video on social media.</s>"A 59-year-old Palestinian farmer was killed by a bullet [fired by] the Israeli soldiers on the eastern outskirts of the Khan Yunis city," the source said.

The farmer was shot when he was working on his land, the source added.

READ MORE: Dozens of Palestinians Injured in Renewed Clashes With Israeli Forces — Reports

The tensions at the border between Israel and Palestine flared up after US President Donald Trump's December decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and relocate the US embassy to the city from Tel Aviv. Since then, the clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli forces and citizens take place on an almost everyday basis.</s>A spokeswoman for the Israeli occupation army said soldiers opened fire at a Palestinian man who had entered a "banned zone" near Gaza's border with Israeli occupation, but gave no further details. 



 The health ministry identified the farmer as 59-year-old Mohammed Abu Jumaa. 



 The area around the border fence between Gaza and Israeli occupation is the scene of frequent demonstrations by Palestinians to protest the Israeli occupation blockade of the enclave.</s>A Palestinian woman from Gaza finally joined her 12-year-old daughter, who was forced to travel without either of her parents from Gaza to the central occupied West Bank City of Ramallah on Tuesday, where she is scheduled to receive a kidney transplant from her uncle.

The girl was supposed to travel with her parents, but they were denied permits to leave Gaza by Israeli authorities.

Following a public outcry and intervention from Palestinian officials, Israel agreed to grant Attar a permit to leave Gaza to the West Bank to be with her daughter in preparation for the kidney transplant.

Earlier this month, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) released a joint statement saying the record-low rate of permits issued by Israel for Palestinians seeking vital medical treatment outside Gaza “underlines the urgent need for Israel to end its decade-long closure of the Gaza Strip.”

Israeli authorities approved permits for medical appointments for only 54 percent of those who applied in 2017, the lowest rate since the World Health Organization (WHO) began collecting figures in 2008.

WHO reported that 54 Palestinians, 46 of whom had cancer, died in 2017 following denial or delay of their permits.

Gaza, which has often been compared to an “open-air prison” for its more than 2 million inhabitants crowded into 365 square kilometers, has suffered from a decade of isolation and deprivation, made all the worse by three devastating Israeli military operations, and persistent intra-Palestinian political strife.

In 2012, the UN warned that Gaza could become uninhabitable by 2020 if current trends were not altered. However, a report released in 2017 by the UN said that “life for the average Palestinian in Gaza is getting more and more wretched,” and that for the majority of Gaza’s residents, the territory may already be unlivable.
Gazan officials say Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian farmer on his own land in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli military spokesperson said that he got too close to the border fence.