When Palestinian Mohammed al-Mughari was shot by an Israeli sniper on the Gaza border, it left a hole in his leg so big he says he could fit a finger into it.

Over a month into mass protests, more than 40 Palestinians have been killed and at least 1,500 wounded by Israeli fire during the "Great March of Return", a major protest movement along the border between Gaza and Israel.

Doctors are troubled by the high number of disabling wounds, especially to the legs and knees, with Israel facing questions over both its disproportionate use of force and the types of ammunition it is using against demonstrators.

Three weeks after being shot, 28-year-old Mughari's leg is propped up and wrapped in plaster, but he's not in the clear yet. He knows there is still a possibility it might need to be amputated.

The bullet destroyed "30 centimetres of bone in the leg", he told AFP from his hospital bed in Gaza City.

Since March 30, thousands of Palestinians have gathered every Friday at points along the border separating the besieged Gaza Strip and Israel.

The marchers are demanding the right to return to their homes seized by Israel in 1948.

While most of the crowd stands a few hundred metres (yards) from the border fence, smaller numbers have pushed closer to burn tyres and throw stones.

Mughari declined to say whether he threw stones, but he thinks it may be years before he can return to his restaurant job.

"I was planning to get married soon. I'm not thinking about it anymore," he said.

The Israeli army says it fires live rounds only as a "last resort" to protect soldiers and the fence.

It has accused Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas of exploiting the demonstrations and using the protesters as human shields.

Since the protests began, Israeli troops have shot more than 1,500 people. The vast majority are young men, and most of the wounded were hit in the legs, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

Among those killed there have been two journalists and several teenagers.

The asymmetry of force has brought criticism of Israel's policies.

No Israelis have been injured since the protests began.

The European Union and others have called for an investigation into Israel's response, but the Jewish state has rejected the idea.

The United States, Israel's strongest backer, has blocked moves for a probe at the United Nations.

"What is unusual is the lesions and the fact that the wounds are very wide, and the bones can be in many fragments," Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, head of the Doctors Without Borders mission (MSF) in the Palestinian territories, told AFP.

The charity has given nearly 600 people post-operative care since March 30.

Abdel Latif el-Hajj, director general of hospitals in Gaza, accused Israel of using types of ammunition aimed at permanently disfiguring their targets.

He told AFP the army was using "expanding bullets" that separate inside the body, "breaking the bones and blood vessels, causing severe rupturing of the tissue".

Amnesty International on Friday said some of the wounds appear consistent with bullets that expand inside the body.

Such ammunition is considered illegal in international warfare.

AFP could not independently confirm the claim.

"The nature of these injuries shows that Israeli soldiers are using high-velocity military weapons designed to cause maximum harm to Palestinian protesters that do not pose imminent threat to them," an Amnesty statement said.

It accused Israel of "deliberate attempts to kill and maim" protesters.

In a statement the Israeli army said it was only using "standard weapons and ammunition that are lawful under international law", and accused Gaza's health ministry of regularly spreading false information.

Gaza's severely limited medical facilities have been stretched thin by the number of injuries.

Hajj estimates they have only a few weeks of saline solution and antibiotics left.

They also have only around 50 orthopaedic devices, used to support damaged bones or replace destroyed ones.

"I suspect they will be gone in a week," he said.

Ingres from MSF thinks hundreds of people will need costly treatment for months, if not years, with the risk of infection and further amputations if quality treatment is not given.

"The impact will be long term -- not only on the individuals but on the health system, on their families, on the society in total."</s>In Israel's permits, Palestinians see tool to control lives

ETZION MILITARY BASE, West Bank (AP) — More than 300 Palestinians showed up at an Israeli military base in the West Bank recently, hoping they could win the lifting of security bans that prevent them for entering Israel.

But they were also anxious. Talking in small groups, they recounted past experiences where some had been asked to spy on their neighbors in exchange for a permit — a gut-wrenching choice. Permits mean higher-paying jobs in Israel, but suspected informers are shunned or attacked in their communities.

The men waiting outside the Etzion base had seized the offer of security ban reviews as a rare chance to access a secretive system. But they also feared the "clearance campaign" makes it more convenient for Israel's Shin Bet security service to gather information about them.

"They control the lives of the people, deciding who can come and who can go," said Majed Ghayada, 35, one of those at the gate who learned of his security block last fall when his permit request was rejected, without explanation.

Security bans are the hidden centerpiece of a permit system that Palestinians consider the ultimate tool of control in Israel's half-century-old military occupation.

The impact of the permits system reverberates in numerous ways, directly or indirectly affecting the lives of nearly all the 4.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Having a permit can determine where Palestinians work or study, whether they can visit relatives or afford to get married, even whom they marry.

The system, mainly run by a military administration known by its acronym COGAT, has swelled over into a sprawling bureaucracy with intricate categories and arcane rules, often opaque and confusing, according to multiple interviews with those involved in and affected by the system. The result often confounds Palestinians' attempts to live a semblance of a normal life.

Israel portrays permits as good-will gestures meant to improve the lives of Palestinians. It says the system is crucial to shield against what it says are ongoing attempts by Palestinian militants to carry out attacks.

Hundreds of Israelis were killed in bombings and shootings over a decade ago, and Palestinian militants keep trying to carry out attacks in Israel, said retired Col. Grisha Yakubovich, a veteran of the Civil Administration, which is part of the COGAT system. "So you need to check everybody," he said.

Rights activists say the system is unique because of its sophistication and the large number of people it controls— 2.5 million in the West Bank and 2 million in Gaza.

Israel typically issues several hundred thousand entry permits a year for West Bankers, ranging from day passes to those valid for several months, for work, health care, study and other purposes.

In Gaza, under blockade since a 2007 takeover by the militant Hamas, even the small number of permits for "exceptional" entry to Israel plummeted. Last year, fewer than 6,000 people a month left on average, roughly half the level of 2016, according to the Israeli rights group Gisha.

COGAT did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the permit system. But it has defended the shrinking permit numbers from Gaza, saying Hamas exploits travelers to smuggle money or weapons.

Underpinning the permit system is the absence of a recognized border between Israel and the war-won territories. Israel never annexed the West Bank, even as it built settlements there. Israelis move freely in and out of the West Bank. But Israel argues that Palestinians don't have an inherent right of entry to pre-1967 Israel and east Jerusalem, their traditional political, cultural and commercial hub, or to travel between the West Bank and Gaza.

Yael Berda, a former Israeli lawyer, said she believes a key objective of the permit system is to enable the Shin Bet to recruit informers providing low-grade information.

Shin Bet agents use seemingly irrelevant snippets of information to create the impression of omnipotence, she said. She recalled how agents asked one of her clients about a needlepoint rendering of a Muslim shrine on display in his living room.

"At that moment, the person thinks their whole life is an open book, that he shouldn't hide anything," said Berda, who has written a book about the permit system.

In a statement to The Associated Press, the Shin Bet denied a hidden agenda, saying that security blocks are "solely derived from security considerations and the prevention of terrorism."

Tens of thousands of West Bankers are believed to have security bans on them. The Shin Bet refuses to specify how many. The cause of security blocks is often a mystery. Anyone who ever served prison time is almost certain to have one, but others who are banned were never in an Israeli prison.

At the Etzion base, Palestinians handed their Israeli-issued ID cards to soldiers last week.

Several younger men were called for interviews. One emerged dejected. The 26-year-old said the agent told him that before removing the ban — in place since a one-year prison term for a security offense in 2013 — they first had to "build a bridge of trust." The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, rejected what he saw as an attempt to recruit him.

Only a small number of people saw their bans lifted that day, according to those present.

Quarry owner Mohammed Thawabta said he had been blocked at the beginning of the year after seven years of having his trader permit renewed without problems. The 39-year-old sells $1.7 million of cut stones a year, including to Israel.

By early afternoon, a soldier handed back Thawabta's ID, telling him the ban remains in place.

"I was so disappointed because I went there full of hope ... because I'm a businessman and I was never engaged in any problem with anyone," Thawabta later said by phone.

He needs the permit to deal with his Israeli customers, he said, adding that "nothing is in my hand."

Associated Press writer Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.</s>President Mahmoud Abbas called on Monday for Palestinians to keep their children from protests along the border between Israel and Gaza, warning of a "handicapped" generation as the death toll from Israeli fire on protesters in the Gaza Strip mounts.

"Keep the young men from the border, move the children away, we do not want to become handicapped people," he said in a speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

49 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds - more than 140 seriously - injured by Israeli fire since regular protests and clashes broke out along the Gaza border on March 30.

At least six of the dead have been aged 18 or younger.

Speaking at the opening of a rare meeting of the Palestinian National Council, Abbas said he supported peaceful protests along the border but wanted to "protect the next generation".

The deaths have led to criticism of Israel's use of live ammunition.

After a 15-year-old was killed, United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Nickolay Mladenov wrote on Twitter: "It is OUTRAGEOUS to shoot at children... #Children must be protected from #violence, not exposed to it."

Israel says it only opens fire when necessary to stop damage to the Gaza fence, infiltrations and attackers.

But no Israelis have been hurt, and U.N. chief Antonio Guterres and the European Union have called for an independent investigation into the deaths.

Israel has rejected such calls, saying its open-fire rules are necessary to protect the border.

For the last four weeks, Gazans have staged mostly peaceful rallies along the border to demand the "right of return" to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

The rallies are part of a six-week demonstration that will culminate on May 15, which will mark the 70th anniversary of Israel's establishment -- an event Palestinians refer to as "The Catastrophe".</s>JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops fatally shot two Palestinians who infiltrated the country from Gaza and attacked soldiers with explosives Sunday night, and in a separate incident killed another Palestinian who tried to breach the border, the military said.

Another Palestinian was detained in the latter incident, and two more were caught trying to cross the border in a third case, the military said.

The Gaza border has been tense in recent weeks, with the Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza urging mass Palestinian protests there every Friday as part of a weeks-long campaign against a decade-old blockade of the territory. The protests have turned violent and 39 Palestinians have been killed during the unrest, which began March 30.

Israel says that it is defending its sovereign border, including nearby communities, and that its troops target only instigators. Israel accuses Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, of trying to carry out attacks under the guise of the mass protests.

The military said that "two terrorists who infiltrated into Israel hurled explosive devices" at soldiers Sunday night. The soldiers returned fire, killing them.

About a half hour earlier, two Palestinians damaged the security fence and tried to cross into Israel. Troops opened fire, killing one, the military said. The other was detained for questioning, it said.

In a third incident, soldiers spotted two Palestinians trying to breach the border. They were arrested and found to have knives and wire cutters on their persons, the military said.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas in Gaza.

Also Sunday, the Israeli army said most of the deaths of Palestinians during the Gaza unrest have been unintentional. An unidentified senior officer in Israel's southern command told the newspaper Haaretz that snipers have been aiming at protesters' legs, but people have been killed after bending down, when struck by a ricocheting bullet or when a sniper misses the target.

A second senior officer confirmed the report, saying that while there is no exact breakdown, the "overwhelming majority" of deaths were unintentional, including a teenage boy and two Palestinian journalists who apparently were caught in crossfire. He said an exception was Friday, when soldiers opened fire at a large crowd that attempted to break through the border fence, killing three people.

The officer spoke on condition of anonymity under military guidelines.

Israel has been accused by the United Nations, European Union and rights groups of using excessive force against unarmed protesters. Israel says it is aiming only at instigators, and accuses Hamas of using civilians for cover to carry out attacks.

Israel says some of those protesting have tried to damage the border fence or plant explosives along it. Others have hurled improvised explosives and firebombs at soldiers while others have flown kites with burning rags attached to set Israeli fields on fire.

There is considerable fear among Israelis of a mass breach in which Gazans stream across, militants mixed in, wreaking havoc. Israel has warned that anyone approaching the border fence is risking their lives and accused Hamas of cynically exploiting civilians for its agenda.

Hamas has attacked Israelis with suicide bombings, shootings and rockets over the years. For more than a decade the group has tightly controlled Gaza, quashing dissent.

Hamas says the protests are aimed at breaking a crippling border blockade that was imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant group overran Gaza in 2007.

The blockade has devastated Gaza's economy, made it virtually impossible for people to enter and exit the territory, and left residents with just a few hours of electricity a day. Tap water is undrinkable and its Mediterranean coast has been polluted with untreated waste. Life in the coastal strip has deteriorated further in recent months, with rising unemployment and grinding poverty.

Other blockade-busting tactics by Hamas have failed over the years, including three cross-border wars with Israel and repeated rounds of unsuccessful power-sharing talks with the West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The last round collapsed, in part because Hamas refused to disarm.

The protests also press for a "return" of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were displaced in the 1948 war over Israel's creation.

The protests are to culminate May 15, the anniversary of Israel's founding. Palestinians mark the date as their "nakba," or catastrophe.</s>ETZION MILITARY BASE, West Bank (AP) — More than 300 Palestinians showed up at an Israeli military base in the West Bank recently, hoping they could win the lifting of security bans that prevent them for entering Israel.

But they were also anxious.

Talking in small groups, they recounted past experiences where some had been asked to spy on their neighbors in exchange for a permit — a gut-wrenching choice. Permits mean freedom of movement and higher-paying jobs in Israel, but those suspected of being informers are shunned or attacked by their communities.

Those waiting outside the Etzion base had seized the offer of security ban reviews as a rare chance to access a secretive system. But they also feared the roving "clearance campaign," in which the military announces on Facebook which town is next, makes it more convenient for Israel's Shin Bet security service to gather information about them.

"They control the lives of the people, deciding who can come and who can go," said Majed Ghayada, 35, one of those at the gate who learned of his security block last fall when his permit request was rejected, without explanation.

Security bans are the hidden centerpiece of a permit system that Palestinians consider the ultimate tool of control in Israel's half-century-old military occupation.

The restrictions on Palestinians' movements are well known. But the impact of the permit system reverberates in numerous ways, directly or indirectly affecting the lives of nearly all the 4.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Having a permit can determine where Palestinians work or study, whether they can visit relatives or afford to get married, even whom they marry.

The system, mainly run by a military administration known by its acronym COGAT, has swelled into a sprawling bureaucracy with intricate categories and arcane rules, often opaque and confusing, according to interviews with those involved in and affected by the system. The result often confounds Palestinians' attempts to live a semblance of a normal life.

Israel portrays the permits as goodwill gestures and the system as crucial to shield against what it says are ongoing attempts by Palestinian militants to carry out attacks.

Hundreds of Israelis were killed in bombings and shootings over a decade ago, and Palestinian militants keep trying to carry out attacks in Israel, said retired Col. Grisha Yakubovich, a veteran of the Civil Administration, which is part of the COGAT system. "So you need to check everybody," he said.

Critics say the ultimate purpose is to entrench Palestinians' dependence. The system, they say, provides leverage to recruit informers, creates internal suspicions and keeps Palestinian political and business elites compliant through movement perks.

It also fuels corruption, they say. Many Palestinian laborers in Israel pay as much as a quarter of their salaries to Palestinian permit brokers. The brokers, in turn, are believed to share kickbacks with Israeli employers, fallout of a system in which the permit is issued to employers, not workers. There are also reports of bribery and favoritism among Palestinian officials who determine what names are submitted to obtain valued Israeli permits for businessmen.

As a sign of how central the system is to everyone's lives, the Arabic Facebook page of the head of COGAT, Gen. Yoav Mordechai, has more than 410,000 followers, most likely almost all of them Palestinians, watching for any announcements concerning the permit regime.

That would be almost a tenth of the entire Palestinian population — men and women, children and elderly — in the West Bank and Gaza.

Rights activists say the system is unique because of its sophistication and the large number of people it controls— 2.5 million in the West Bank and 2 million in Gaza.

Israel typically issues several hundred thousand entry permits a year for West Bankers, ranging from day passes to those valid for several months. After years of legal battles with Israeli rights groups, COGAT began making some rules public in a 65-page document on its website. It contains charts describing dozens of different permit types and quotas, carving out oddly narrow subsets like "burial society employees."

In Gaza, under blockade since a 2007 takeover by the militant Hamas, even the small number of permits for "exceptional" entry to Israel plummeted. Last year, fewer than 6,000 people a month left on average, roughly half the level of 2016, according to the Israeli rights group Gisha.

COGAT did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the permit system. But it has defended the shrinking permit numbers from Gaza, saying Hamas exploits travelers to smuggle money or weapons.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. For the first two decades of Israeli rule, Palestinians could drive to jobs in Israel or trade between the West Bank and Gaza.

Restrictions steadily grew from the 1990s, driven by violence linked to the first Palestinian uprising, but also as a by-product of talks on the creation of autonomous Palestinian zones.

Underpinning the permit system is the absence of a recognized border between Israel and the war-won territories. Israel never annexed the West Bank, even as it built settlements there. Israelis move freely in and out of the West Bank. But Israel argues that Palestinians don't have an inherent right of entry to pre-1967 Israel and east Jerusalem, their traditional political, cultural and commercial hub, or to travel between the West Bank and Gaza.

Mohammed Atta pulled up at a locked gate in Israel's separation barrier, his pickup truck loaded with peach and apple trees to deliver to a nursery on the other side, in what Israel calls the "seam zone."

The zone is part of the West Bank, but ended up on the "Israeli" side of the barrier, which for long stretches runs inside the West Bank rather than along the pre-1967 frontier, or Green Line.

Critics say that turned a defensive measure into a land grab. It also created a complex subset of the permit regime.

A 41-page Civil Administration manual details rules for Palestinians with homes, businesses, jobs or land in the seam zone, from which they can easily cross an invisible Green Line into Israel.

Even movements of sheep and goats are regulated. An animal enclosure outside the seam zone can't be more than 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) from pastures in the zone. The frequency of herds crossing the barrier depends on the number of animals and size of the pasture.

"It's bureaucracy at its worst," said Hanna Barag, founder of Machsom Watch, a group of Israeli women who monitor checkpoints.

Atta, 61, works for a nursery with branches on both sides of the barrier.

His permit specifies which barrier gate he can use to enter the seam zone. His work schedule is dictated by its three daily openings, about an hour each.

On a recent day, two soldiers arrived a few minutes after the appointed time. Atta and others got through. But the soldiers closed after 45 minutes, and turned away an irritated motorist who gestured to his watch to show he should still be allowed through.

From Palestinians' view, decisions on permits seem arbitrary, often making it difficult to plan their lives.

For example, long-distance runner Nader al-Masri, who participated in dozens of international competitions, including the 2008 Olympics, shouldn't have a problem getting out of Gaza. Athletes are among the few theoretically eligible for Israeli exit permits, as are major traders and medical patients requiring life-saving treatment. Al-Masri said he's never engaged in politics.

Yet for three years, Israel would not approve his exit applications, without stating a reason.

Earlier this month, he finally got a permit along with his team of young runners aiming to attend a competition in Jordan. But their permits were issued too late and they only got there on the third day of the tournament.

Al-Masri was upset. Among the races his teams missed was the 1,500-meter run. The third-place winner, it turned out, finished well behind the personal best of one of the Gaza runners. "If we had participated, we would have gotten a medal for sure," he said.

"Stability is born from prosperity." It's a slogan Gen. Mordechai puts on some of his Facebook posts. A fluent Arabic speaker, he portrays himself as accessible and eager to improve Palestinians' economic situation.

But that slogan could also be flipped. Palestinians say their hope for prosperity — receiving a permit — depends on them preserving stability, staying compliant, avoiding any kind of trouble.

Yael Berda, a former Israeli lawyer involved in such cases, said she believes a key objective of the permit system is to enable the Shin Bet to recruit informers providing low-grade information.

Shin Bet agents use seemingly irrelevant snippets of information to create the impression of omnipotence, she said. She recalled how agents asked one of her clients about a needlepoint rendering of a Muslim shrine on display in his living room.

"At that moment, the person thinks their whole life is an open book, that he shouldn't hide anything," said Berda, who has written a book about the permit system.

In a statement to The Associated Press, the Shin Bet denied a hidden agenda, saying that security blocks are "solely derived from security considerations and the prevention of terrorism."

Tens of thousands of West Bankers are believed to have security bans on them. The Shin Bet refuses to specify how many. The cause of security blocks is often a mystery. Anyone who ever served prison time is almost certain to have one, but others who are banned were never in an Israeli prison.

Around 300 Palestinians showed up at the Etzion military base last week, handing their Israeli-issued ID cards to soldiers. Several younger men were called in for interviews, presumably with Shin Bet agents.

A 26-year-old emerged a while later, dejected. He said the agent told him that before lifting his ban — in place since a one-year prison term for a security offense in 2013 — they first had to "build a bridge of trust." The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of further repercussions, rejected what he believed was an attempt to recruit him.

Only a small number of people saw their bans lifted that day, according to those who showed up.

One of those rejected, 28-year-old Ibrahim Darie, said he had previously been asked by the Shin Bet to collaborate in exchange for a permit, but was not questioned this time.

Mohammed Thawabta, who owns a quarry, said he had been blocked at the beginning of the year after seven years of having his trader permit renewed without problems. The 39-year-old sells $1.7 million of cut stones a year, including to Israel.

By early afternoon, a soldier handed back Thawabta's ID, telling him the ban remains in place.

"I was so disappointed because I went there full of hope ... because I'm a businessman and I was never engaged in any problem with anyone," Thawabta later said by phone.

He needs the permit to deal with his Israeli customers, he said, adding that "nothing is in my hand."</s>Fares Akram

 GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip.- Hundreds of Palestinians converged on the Gaza Strip’s border fence with Israel, trying to rip through it before drawing heavy Israeli fire in one of the most violent incidents yet in five weeks of protests.

Three Palestinians were killed and dozens were reported wounded. The violence came shortly after a top U.N. official urged Israel to refrain from using excessive force against the protesters.

Three Palestinians were killed and dozens were reported wounded

At least 38 protesters have been killed by Israeli live fire and more than 1,600 wounded in the weekly protests since they began March 30. Israel has rejected the international criticism, saying it is defending its sovereign border and accusing Gaza’s Hamas leaders, who are organizing the protests, of using the crowds as cover to carry out attacks.

In Friday’s unrest, a large crowd gathered a few hundred meters (yards) from the border, with some throwing stones and setting tires on fire in what has become a weekly occurrence. Late in the afternoon, dozens of young men broke away from the larger protest, moving south about 200 meters (yards) and approaching the fence. The crowd then tried to break through the fence with hooks and wire cutters when Israeli forces opened fire.

Witnesses said three protesters briefly crossed into Israel and turned around. Hundreds of additional protesters ran to the scene, and the numbers quickly grew to several thousand.

Israeli armored vehicles sped to the site and fired barrages of tear gas. As gunfire erupted, the crowd dispersed. A dozen Palestinian ambulances jammed a dirt road lining up to evacuate the wounded. Some in the crowd shouted “shahid,” or “martyr” as bodies were taken away on stretchers.</s>More than 300 Palestinians showed up at an Israeli military base in the West Bank recently, hoping they could win the lifting of security bans that prevent them for entering Israel.

But they were also anxious.

Talking in small groups, they recounted past experiences where some had been asked to spy on their neighbours in exchange for a permit — a gut-wrenching choice. Permits mean freedom of movement and higher-paying jobs in Israel, but those suspected of being informers are shunned or attacked by their communities.

Those waiting outside the Etzion base had seized the offer of security ban reviews as a rare chance to access a secretive system. But they also feared the roving “clearance campaign,” in which the military announces on Facebook which town is next, makes it more convenient for Israel’s Shin Bet security service to gather information about them.

“They control the lives of the people, deciding who can come and who can go,” said Majed Ghayada, 35, one of those at the gate who learned of his security block last fall when his permit request was rejected, without explanation.

Security bans are the hidden centerpiece of a permit system that Palestinians consider the ultimate tool of control in Israel’s half-century-old military occupation.

The restrictions on Palestinians’ movements are well known. But the impact of the permit system reverberates in numerous ways, directly or indirectly affecting the lives of nearly all the 4.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Having a permit can determine where Palestinians work or study, whether they can visit relatives or afford to get married, even whom they marry.

The system, mainly run by a military administration known by its acronym COGAT, has swelled into a sprawling bureaucracy with intricate categories and arcane rules, often opaque and confusing, according to interviews with those involved in and affected by the system. The result often confounds Palestinians’ attempts to live a semblance of a normal life.

Israel portrays the permits as goodwill gestures and the system as crucial to shield against what it says are ongoing attempts by Palestinian militants to carry out attacks.

Hundreds of Israelis were killed in bombings and shootings over a decade ago, and Palestinian militants keep trying to carry out attacks in Israel, said retired Col. Grisha Yakubovich, a veteran of the Civil Administration, which is part of the COGAT system. “So you need to check everybody,” he said.

Critics say the ultimate purpose is to entrench Palestinians’ dependence. The system, they say, provides leverage to recruit informers, creates internal suspicions and keeps Palestinian political and business elites compliant through movement perks.

It also fuels corruption, they say. Many Palestinian labourers in Israel pay as much as a quarter of their salaries to Palestinian permit brokers. The brokers, in turn, are believed to share kickbacks with Israeli employers, fallout of a system in which the permit is issued to employers, not workers. There are also reports of bribery and favouritism among Palestinian officials who determine what names are submitted to obtain valued Israeli permits for businessmen.

As a sign of how central the system is to everyone’s lives, the Arabic Facebook page of the head of COGAT, Gen. Yoav Mordechai, has more than 410,000 followers, most likely almost all of them Palestinians, watching for any announcements concerning the permit regime.

That would be almost a tenth of the entire Palestinian population — men and women, children and elderly — in the West Bank and Gaza.

Rights activists say the system is unique because of its sophistication and the large number of people it controls– 2.5 million in the West Bank and 2 million in Gaza.

Israel typically issues several hundred thousand entry permits a year for West Bankers, ranging from day passes to those valid for several months. After years of legal battles with Israeli rights groups, COGAT began making some rules public in a 65-page document on its website. It contains charts describing dozens of different permit types and quotas, carving out oddly narrow subsets like “burial society employees.”

In Gaza, under blockade since a 2007 takeover by the militant Hamas, even the small number of permits for “exceptional” entry to Israel plummeted. Last year, fewer than 6,000 people a month left on average, roughly half the level of 2016, according to the Israeli rights group Gisha.

COGAT did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the permit system. But it has defended the shrinking permit numbers from Gaza, saying Hamas exploits travellers to smuggle money or weapons.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. For the first two decades of Israeli rule, Palestinians could drive to jobs in Israel or trade between the West Bank and Gaza.

Restrictions steadily grew from the 1990s, driven by violence linked to the first Palestinian uprising, but also as a by-product of talks on the creation of autonomous Palestinian zones.

Underpinning the permit system is the absence of a recognized border between Israel and the war-won territories. Israel never annexed the West Bank, even as it built settlements there. Israelis move freely in and out of the West Bank. But Israel argues that Palestinians don’t have an inherent right of entry to pre-1967 Israel and east Jerusalem, their traditional political, cultural and commercial hub, or to travel between the West Bank and Gaza.

Mohammed Atta pulled up at a locked gate in Israel’s separation barrier, his pickup truck loaded with peach and apple trees to deliver to a nursery on the other side, in what Israel calls the “seam zone.”

The zone is part of the West Bank, but ended up on the “Israeli” side of the barrier, which for long stretches runs inside the West Bank rather than along the pre-1967 frontier, or Green Line.

Critics say that turned a defensive measure into a land grab. It also created a complex subset of the permit regime.

A 41-page Civil Administration manual details rules for Palestinians with homes, businesses, jobs or land in the seam zone, from which they can easily cross an invisible Green Line into Israel.

Even movements of sheep and goats are regulated. An animal enclosure outside the seam zone can’t be more than 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) from pastures in the zone. The frequency of herds crossing the barrier depends on the number of animals and size of the pasture.

“It’s bureaucracy at its worst,” said Hanna Barag, founder of Machsom Watch, a group of Israeli women who monitor checkpoints.

Atta, 61, works for a nursery with branches on both sides of the barrier.

His permit specifies which barrier gate he can use to enter the seam zone. His work schedule is dictated by its three daily openings, about an hour each.

On a recent day, two soldiers arrived a few minutes after the appointed time. Atta and others got through. But the soldiers closed after 45 minutes, and turned away an irritated motorist who gestured to his watch to show he should still be allowed through.

From Palestinians’ view, decisions on permits seem arbitrary, often making it difficult to plan their lives.

For example, long-distance runner Nader al-Masri, who participated in dozens of international competitions, including the 2008 Olympics, shouldn’t have a problem getting out of Gaza. Athletes are among the few theoretically eligible for Israeli exit permits, as are major traders and medical patients requiring life-saving treatment. Al-Masri said he’s never engaged in politics.

Yet for three years, Israel would not approve his exit applications, without stating a reason.

Earlier this month, he finally got a permit along with his team of young runners aiming to attend a competition in Jordan. But their permits were issued too late and they only got there on the third day of the tournament.

Al-Masri was upset. Among the races his teams missed was the 1,500-meter run. The third-place winner, it turned out, finished well behind the personal best of one of the Gaza runners. “If we had participated, we would have gotten a medal for sure,” he said.

“Stability is born from prosperity.” It’s a slogan Gen. Mordechai puts on some of his Facebook posts. A fluent Arabic speaker, he portrays himself as accessible and eager to improve Palestinians’ economic situation.

But that slogan could also be flipped. Palestinians say their hope for prosperity — receiving a permit — depends on them preserving stability, staying compliant, avoiding any kind of trouble.

Yael Berda, a former Israeli lawyer involved in such cases, said she believes a key objective of the permit system is to enable the Shin Bet to recruit informers providing low-grade information.

Shin Bet agents use seemingly irrelevant snippets of information to create the impression of omnipotence, she said. She recalled how agents asked one of her clients about a needlepoint rendering of a Muslim shrine on display in his living room.

“At that moment, the person thinks their whole life is an open book, that he shouldn’t hide anything,” said Berda, who has written a book about the permit system.

In a statement to The Associated Press, the Shin Bet denied a hidden agenda, saying that security blocks are “solely derived from security considerations and the prevention of terrorism.”

Tens of thousands of West Bankers are believed to have security bans on them. The Shin Bet refuses to specify how many. The cause of security blocks is often a mystery. Anyone who ever served prison time is almost certain to have one, but others who are banned were never in an Israeli prison.

Around 300 Palestinians showed up at the Etzion military base last week, handing their Israeli-issued ID cards to soldiers. Several younger men were called in for interviews, presumably with Shin Bet agents.

A 26-year-old emerged a while later, dejected. He said the agent told him that before lifting his ban — in place since a one-year prison term for a security offence in 2013 — they first had to “build a bridge of trust.” The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of further repercussions, rejected what he believed was an attempt to recruit him.

Only a small number of people saw their bans lifted that day, according to those who showed up.

One of those rejected, 28-year-old Ibrahim Darie, said he had previously been asked by the Shin Bet to collaborate in exchange for a permit, but was not questioned this time.

Mohammed Thawabta, who owns a quarry, said he had been blocked at the beginning of the year after seven years of having his trader permit renewed without problems. The 39-year-old sells $1.7 million of cut stones a year, including to Israel.

By early afternoon, a soldier handed back Thawabta’s ID, telling him the ban remains in place.

“I was so disappointed because I went there full of hope … because I’m a businessman and I was never engaged in any problem with anyone,” Thawabta later said by phone.

He needs the permit to deal with his Israeli customers, he said, adding that “nothing is in my hand.”</s>JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops fatally shot two Palestinians who infiltrated the country from Gaza and attacked soldiers with explosives Sunday night, and in a separate incident killed another Palestinian who tried to breach the border, the military said.

Another Palestinian was detained in the latter incident, and two more were caught trying to cross the border in a third case, the military said.

The Gaza border has been tense in recent weeks, with the Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza urging mass Palestinian protests there every Friday as part of a weeks-long campaign against a decade-old blockade of the territory. The protests have turned violent and 39 Palestinians have been killed during the unrest, which began March 30.

Israel says that it is defending its sovereign border, including nearby communities, and that its troops target only instigators. Israel accuses Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, of trying to carry out attacks under the guise of the mass protests.

The military said that "two terrorists who infiltrated into Israel hurled explosive devices" at soldiers Sunday night. The soldiers returned fire, killing them.

About a half hour earlier, two Palestinians damaged the security fence and tried to cross into Israel. Troops opened fire, killing one, the military said. The other was detained for questioning, it said.

In a third incident, soldiers spotted two Palestinians trying to breach the border. They were arrested and found to have knives and wire cutters on their persons, the military said.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas in Gaza.

Also Sunday, the Israeli army said most of the deaths of Palestinians during the Gaza unrest have been unintentional. An unidentified senior officer in Israel's southern command told the newspaper Haaretz that snipers have been aiming at protesters' legs, but people have been killed after bending down, when struck by a ricocheting bullet or when a sniper misses the target.

A second senior officer confirmed the report, saying that while there is no exact breakdown, the "overwhelming majority" of deaths were unintentional, including a teenage boy and two Palestinian journalists who apparently were caught in crossfire. He said an exception was Friday, when soldiers opened fire at a large crowd that attempted to break through the border fence, killing three people.

The officer spoke on condition of anonymity under military guidelines.

Israel has been accused by the United Nations, European Union and rights groups of using excessive force against unarmed protesters. Israel says it is aiming only at instigators, and accuses Hamas of using civilians for cover to carry out attacks.

Israel says some of those protesting have tried to damage the border fence or plant explosives along it. Others have hurled improvised explosives and firebombs at soldiers while others have flown kites with burning rags attached to set Israeli fields on fire.

There is considerable fear among Israelis of a mass breach in which Gazans stream across, militants mixed in, wreaking havoc. Israel has warned that anyone approaching the border fence is risking their lives and accused Hamas of cynically exploiting civilians for its agenda.

Hamas has attacked Israelis with suicide bombings, shootings and rockets over the years. For more than a decade the group has tightly controlled Gaza, quashing dissent.

Hamas says the protests are aimed at breaking a crippling border blockade that was imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant group overran Gaza in 2007.

The blockade has devastated Gaza's economy, made it virtually impossible for people to enter and exit the territory, and left residents with just a few hours of electricity a day. Tap water is undrinkable and its Mediterranean coast has been polluted with untreated waste. Life in the coastal strip has deteriorated further in recent months, with rising unemployment and grinding poverty.

Other blockade-busting tactics by Hamas have failed over the years, including three cross-border wars with Israel and repeated rounds of unsuccessful power-sharing talks with the West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The last round collapsed, in part because Hamas refused to disarm.

The protests also press for a "return" of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were displaced in the 1948 war over Israel's creation.

The protests are to culminate May 15, the anniversary of Israel's founding. Palestinians mark the date as their "nakba," or catastrophe.</s>ETZION MILITARY BASE, West Bank (AP) — More than 300 Palestinians showed up at an Israeli military base in the West Bank recently, hoping they could win the lifting of security bans that prevent them for entering Israel.

But they were also anxious.

Talking in small groups, they recounted past experiences where some had been asked to spy on their neighbors in exchange for a permit — a gut-wrenching choice. Permits mean freedom of movement and higher-paying jobs in Israel, but those suspected of being informers are shunned or attacked by their communities.

Those waiting outside the Etzion base had seized the offer of security ban reviews as a rare chance to access a secretive system. But they also feared the roving "clearance campaign," in which the military announces on Facebook which town is next, makes it more convenient for Israel's Shin Bet security service to gather information about them.

"They control the lives of the people, deciding who can come and who can go," said Majed Ghayada, 35, one of those at the gate who learned of his security block last fall when his permit request was rejected, without explanation.

Security bans are the hidden centerpiece of a permit system that Palestinians consider the ultimate tool of control in Israel's half-century-old military occupation.

The restrictions on Palestinians' movements are well known. But the impact of the permit system reverberates in numerous ways, directly or indirectly affecting the lives of nearly all the 4.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Having a permit can determine where Palestinians work or study, whether they can visit relatives or afford to get married, even whom they marry.

The system, mainly run by a military administration known by its acronym COGAT, has swelled into a sprawling bureaucracy with intricate categories and arcane rules, often opaque and confusing, according to interviews with those involved in and affected by the system. The result often confounds Palestinians' attempts to live a semblance of a normal life.

Israel portrays the permits as goodwill gestures and the system as crucial to shield against what it says are ongoing attempts by Palestinian militants to carry out attacks.

Hundreds of Israelis were killed in bombings and shootings over a decade ago, and Palestinian militants keep trying to carry out attacks in Israel, said retired Col. Grisha Yakubovich, a veteran of the Civil Administration, which is part of the COGAT system. "So you need to check everybody," he said.

Critics say the ultimate purpose is to entrench Palestinians' dependence. The system, they say, provides leverage to recruit informers, creates internal suspicions and keeps Palestinian political and business elites compliant through movement perks.

It also fuels corruption, they say. Many Palestinian laborers in Israel pay as much as a quarter of their salaries to Palestinian permit brokers. The brokers, in turn, are believed to share kickbacks with Israeli employers, fallout of a system in which the permit is issued to employers, not workers. There are also reports of bribery and favoritism among Palestinian officials who determine what names are submitted to obtain valued Israeli permits for businessmen.

As a sign of how central the system is to everyone's lives, the Arabic Facebook page of the head of COGAT, Gen. Yoav Mordechai, has more than 410,000 followers, most likely almost all of them Palestinians, watching for any announcements concerning the permit regime.

That would be almost a tenth of the entire Palestinian population — men and women, children and elderly — in the West Bank and Gaza.

Rights activists say the system is unique because of its sophistication and the large number of people it controls— 2.5 million in the West Bank and 2 million in Gaza.

Israel typically issues several hundred thousand entry permits a year for West Bankers, ranging from day passes to those valid for several months. After years of legal battles with Israeli rights groups, COGAT began making some rules public in a 65-page document on its website. It contains charts describing dozens of different permit types and quotas, carving out oddly narrow subsets like "burial society employees."

In Gaza, under blockade since a 2007 takeover by the militant Hamas, even the small number of permits for "exceptional" entry to Israel plummeted. Last year, fewer than 6,000 people a month left on average, roughly half the level of 2016, according to the Israeli rights group Gisha.

COGAT did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the permit system. But it has defended the shrinking permit numbers from Gaza, saying Hamas exploits travelers to smuggle money or weapons.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. For the first two decades of Israeli rule, Palestinians could drive to jobs in Israel or trade between the West Bank and Gaza.

Restrictions steadily grew from the 1990s, driven by violence linked to the first Palestinian uprising, but also as a by-product of talks on the creation of autonomous Palestinian zones.

Underpinning the permit system is the absence of a recognized border between Israel and the war-won territories. Israel never annexed the West Bank, even as it built settlements there. Israelis move freely in and out of the West Bank. But Israel argues that Palestinians don't have an inherent right of entry to pre-1967 Israel and east Jerusalem, their traditional political, cultural and commercial hub, or to travel between the West Bank and Gaza.

Mohammed Atta pulled up at a locked gate in Israel's separation barrier, his pickup truck loaded with peach and apple trees to deliver to a nursery on the other side, in what Israel calls the "seam zone."

The zone is part of the West Bank, but ended up on the "Israeli" side of the barrier, which for long stretches runs inside the West Bank rather than along the pre-1967 frontier, or Green Line.

Critics say that turned a defensive measure into a land grab. It also created a complex subset of the permit regime.

A 41-page Civil Administration manual details rules for Palestinians with homes, businesses, jobs or land in the seam zone, from which they can easily cross an invisible Green Line into Israel.

Even movements of sheep and goats are regulated. An animal enclosure outside the seam zone can't be more than 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) from pastures in the zone. The frequency of herds crossing the barrier depends on the number of animals and size of the pasture.

"It's bureaucracy at its worst," said Hanna Barag, founder of Machsom Watch, a group of Israeli women who monitor checkpoints.

Atta, 61, works for a nursery with branches on both sides of the barrier.

His permit specifies which barrier gate he can use to enter the seam zone. His work schedule is dictated by its three daily openings, about an hour each.

On a recent day, two soldiers arrived a few minutes after the appointed time. Atta and others got through. But the soldiers closed after 45 minutes, and turned away an irritated motorist who gestured to his watch to show he should still be allowed through.

From Palestinians' view, decisions on permits seem arbitrary, often making it difficult to plan their lives.

For example, long-distance runner Nader al-Masri, who participated in dozens of international competitions, including the 2008 Olympics, shouldn't have a problem getting out of Gaza. Athletes are among the few theoretically eligible for Israeli exit permits, as are major traders and medical patients requiring life-saving treatment. Al-Masri said he's never engaged in politics.

Yet for three years, Israel would not approve his exit applications, without stating a reason.

Earlier this month, he finally got a permit along with his team of young runners aiming to attend a competition in Jordan. But their permits were issued too late and they only got there on the third day of the tournament.

Al-Masri was upset. Among the races his teams missed was the 1,500-meter run. The third-place winner, it turned out, finished well behind the personal best of one of the Gaza runners. "If we had participated, we would have gotten a medal for sure," he said.

"Stability is born from prosperity." It's a slogan Gen. Mordechai puts on some of his Facebook posts. A fluent Arabic speaker, he portrays himself as accessible and eager to improve Palestinians' economic situation.

But that slogan could also be flipped. Palestinians say their hope for prosperity — receiving a permit — depends on them preserving stability, staying compliant, avoiding any kind of trouble.

Yael Berda, a former Israeli lawyer involved in such cases, said she believes a key objective of the permit system is to enable the Shin Bet to recruit informers providing low-grade information.

Shin Bet agents use seemingly irrelevant snippets of information to create the impression of omnipotence, she said. She recalled how agents asked one of her clients about a needlepoint rendering of a Muslim shrine on display in his living room.

"At that moment, the person thinks their whole life is an open book, that he shouldn't hide anything," said Berda, who has written a book about the permit system.

In a statement to The Associated Press, the Shin Bet denied a hidden agenda, saying that security blocks are "solely derived from security considerations and the prevention of terrorism."

Tens of thousands of West Bankers are believed to have security bans on them. The Shin Bet refuses to specify how many. The cause of security blocks is often a mystery. Anyone who ever served prison time is almost certain to have one, but others who are banned were never in an Israeli prison.

Around 300 Palestinians showed up at the Etzion military base last week, handing their Israeli-issued ID cards to soldiers. Several younger men were called in for interviews, presumably with Shin Bet agents.

A 26-year-old emerged a while later, dejected. He said the agent told him that before lifting his ban — in place since a one-year prison term for a security offense in 2013 — they first had to "build a bridge of trust." The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of further repercussions, rejected what he believed was an attempt to recruit him.

Only a small number of people saw their bans lifted that day, according to those who showed up.

One of those rejected, 28-year-old Ibrahim Darie, said he had previously been asked by the Shin Bet to collaborate in exchange for a permit, but was not questioned this time.

Mohammed Thawabta, who owns a quarry, said he had been blocked at the beginning of the year after seven years of having his trader permit renewed without problems. The 39-year-old sells $1.7 million of cut stones a year, including to Israel.

By early afternoon, a soldier handed back Thawabta's ID, telling him the ban remains in place.

"I was so disappointed because I went there full of hope ... because I'm a businessman and I was never engaged in any problem with anyone," Thawabta later said by phone.

He needs the permit to deal with his Israeli customers, he said, adding that "nothing is in my hand."</s>Israel's use of live fire in Gaza protests faces legal test

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's Supreme Court on Monday heard the first legal challenge of the military's open-fire rules, after 39 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,700 wounded by Israeli fire during mass protests on the Gaza border over the past month.

The hearing came amid growing international criticism of Israel for its use of lethal force and a mounting casualty toll since the weekly protests, organized by Gaza's ruling Hamas, began in late March. Organizers say the mass demonstrations are to continue for at least two more weeks, with some threatening a mass border breach.

The court is not expected to rule before next week, in what human rights lawyer Michael Sfard said is the first broad review of the army's rules of engagement in almost three decades.

On Monday, six human rights groups asked the Supreme Court to declare as unlawful any regulations that allow soldiers to open fire at unarmed civilians.

Lawyers for the groups said Israel's response to the Gaza protests must follow the rules of engagement for law enforcement officers, who are barred from using lethal force unless they face imminent danger to "life and limb."

The Israeli military argued that the protests are taking place in the context of a long-running armed conflict with the Islamic militant group Hamas, and that open-fire regulations are subject to the rules of armed conflict. Such rules provide greater leeway for the use of lethal force than those governing law enforcement practices.

Sfard said the army's rules of engagement don't meet international standards of law enforcement and that the laws of armed conflict don't apply in this case. "Lethal force against unarmed civilians who do not pose danger is illegal," he said. "This is the crux of the case."

Michael Oren, a deputy Israeli Cabinet minister, said the protests "are designed to break down the border and any army is charged with defending a border." He acknowledged that mistakes might have been made in some of the shootings and that "bullets can do unpredictable things."

The weekly marches are aimed in part at trying to break a border blockade of Gaza, imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas overran the territory in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliament elections. Organizers say the marches also press for the "right of return" of refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel.

The protests, dubbed the "Great March of Return," are to culminate in a mass gathering on the border on May 15, a day Palestinians mark as their "nakba," or catastrophe, to commemorate their mass uprooting during the 1948 war over Israel's creation.

Hamas leaders have issued warnings about a possible border breach, but stopped short of specific threats. "Our steadfast national decision is to continue the March of Return and of breaking the siege," Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Monday. He said he hoped the idea would catch on in the West Bank and elsewhere.

In the weekly protests, thousands of Palestinians have been heading toward Gaza's border area with Israel. A majority stay in or near five tent camps, each set up several hundred meters (yards) from the border fence. Typically, smaller groups move closer to the fence, throwing stones, burning tires and or hurling firebombs.

Soldiers, including snipers, are perched behind protective sand berms on the other side of the border.

Last Friday, hundreds of Palestinians converged on a stretch of fence, trying to burn and rip through it before drawing heavy Israeli fire. Three Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded in the incident, the most serious attempt so far by a large group to break down the barrier.

The rights groups that petitioned the high court said that even if protests turn into riots, lethal force against unarmed demonstrators can only be used a last resort — in the event of a life-threatening situation. The groups said that in several cases caught on video, protesters were targeted while standing dozens of meters from the fence, or while trying to take cover. Among those killed were four minors and two journalists.

The Israeli military said Hamas has used the protests as cover to damage the fence and carry out attacks. On Sunday night, Israeli troops fatally shot two Palestinians who infiltrated from Gaza and attacked soldiers with explosives, the military said. A third Palestinian was killed during an attempted border breach, it said.

In its court brief, the army said Gaza militants have planted some two dozen explosives along the fence.
The Israel Defense Forces say they shot dead three Palestinians in two incidents yesterday. The IDF says one was killed trying to breach the Israeli-Gazan border fence while a second was wounded and arrested. They say the second incident saw two men shot dead after bypassing the fence and throwing explosives at IDF soldiers.