GAZA, Palestinian Territories – Health officials say a 28-year-old Palestinian has been killed by Israeli fire in protests on the Gaza-Israel border.</s>Palestinians burn tires at the border fence with Israel, east of Jabalia in the central Gaza city, during a protest on April 13, 2018.

One Palestinian was killed and 233 were wouned by live israeli fire as more than 10,000 protested along the Israel-Gaza border on Friday, burning tires and Israeli flags, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

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According to the Israeli army, protests were held at five different sites along the border.

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The Health Ministry in Gaza identified the Palestinian killed in the protest as Asalam Saudi Hasralla, 28. Overall, 969 Palestinians were wounded in Friday's protest, with 233 wounded by live fire and 419 evacuated to the hospital. Of those wounded, 20 were women and 67 were under age 18. Thirteen Palestinians were wounded by rubber-tipped bullets. The ministry noted that the number of protesters was lower than last week.

According to the army, numerous attempts to destroy obstacles erected by the army were made during the day. They also said that a number of attacks were attempted, with explosives and firebombs thrown at the border, as well as gunfire.

Third week of protests along Gaza border

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Later on Friday, the Israeli military said that attempts were made to breach and cross the border fence. An explosive charge was thrown in the Karni area, and firebombs were thrown at the border. A kite with a Molotov cocktail was sent towards the Israeli side of the border, but it fell on the side of Gaza, and no one was hurt.

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Palestinians: Smoke grenade fired a medical tent, ten medics suffer smoke inhalation - דלג Palestinians: Smoke grenade fired a medical tent, ten medics suffer smoke inhalation

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The army reiterated it is opening fire only according to its protocols and will not allow anyone to harm Israel's "defense infrastructures," calling demonstrators "violent rioters and terrorists."

Palestinians said that a smoke grenade was fired at a medical tent, causing ten medics to suffer from smoke inhalation.

Friday's protests were the third round of mass demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, amid reports in Gaza that some demonstrators were preparing firebombs for what they termed “Molotov Day,” a reference to so-called molotov cocktails. The demonstrations’ organizers, however, denounced that idea, stressing that the protests are meant to be “nonviolent resistance.”

Palestinians take cover from tear gas smoke during clashes with Israeli security forces near border fence with Israel, east of Gaza City in the central Gaza Strip on April 13, 2018. Several thousand G MAHMUD HAMS/AFP

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One organizer told Haaretz that "Israel is trying in every way to pin the marches on Hamas and it's very convenient for them if this action becomes violent on the Palestinian side, and that's why we won't allow it."

He charged that Israel’s airstrikes on Hamas positions over the past week show that Israel is trying to draw the Palestinians, and especially Hamas, into a full-on confrontation.

As this Friday’s theme, organizers plan to have the demonstrators burn Israeli flags and wave Palestinian ones.

The kite with a Molotov cocktail that was meant to fly over the Gaza border on April 13, 2018.

Army braces for violence

Due to both the demonstrations in Gaza and the tension in the north, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot has cut short his trip to Poland, where he was participating in the annual March of the Living. He had decided to cut the trip short before he left and even considered not going at all, because of the situation in Syria. Ultimately, however, he decided to go but return a day early.

On the Gazan front, the IDF has used both sticks and carrots over the past week to persuade Hamas to stop the violent attacks that have accompanied the Palestinian demonstrations.

If Hamas doesn’t stop the violence, the army warned, Israel will retaliate by attacking Hamas positions deep inside Gaza. But it also offered an economic carrot in the form of expanding the zone in which Gazan fisherman are allowed to fish – a decision that was hardly self-evident given that just last week, the state indicted a Gaza resident for planning attacks on Israeli naval vessels together with several co-conspirators.

The IDF expects this Friday’s demonstration to attract roughly the same number of people as last Friday’s, but hopes that it will be less violent on both sides. It has stressed that it won’t tolerate continued violent demonstrations in Gaza at a time when tensions are running high in the north.

Overall, almost 1,300 Palestinians were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers over the past couple of weeks of mass protests on the Gaza-Israel border, according to a computerized count by the Gaza Health Ministry. An additional 1,554 Gazans have been treated for tear gas inhalation or injuries by rubber-coated steel pellets.

In addition, 34 Palestinians have been killed during this period, including 27 in border demonstrations.</s>The Gaza Health Ministry said more than 500 Palestinians were injured Friday by Israeli troops, who used gunfire and tear gas to repel numerous attempts by Palestinians to cross the border fence separating the Palestinian-governed Gaza Strip from Israel.

The violence erupted after thousands of Palestinians staged a protest along the border, the third weekly protest scheduled through mid-May. The protests already have resulted in dozens killed and thousands injured.

The protesters gathered at tent camps several hundred meters from the border fence. After smaller groups approached the fence burning Israeli flags and tires and hurling stones, Israeli soldiers fired live bullets and tear gas.

The Gaza Health Ministry said more than 500 protesters were injured, 122 of them by gunshots. Ten nurses and paramedics and two journalists were among the wounded. One man died of earlier injuries, bringing the overall death toll to 34, the ministry said.

The protesters are demanding an end to the decade-old blockade and a return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel, where their ancestors lived before being forced to flee after the establishment of Israel in 1948. Israel repeatedly has ruled out any right of their return over concerns Israel would lose its Jewish majority.

Some rights groups maintain Israel's open-fire rules are unlawful because troops potentially can use lethal force against unarmed protesters. Amnesty International demanded Friday that Israel "put an immediate end to the excessive and lethal force being used to suppress Palestinian demonstrations in Gaza." It also reiterated its demand for an independent probe into the killings.

The Israeli military said it responded "with riot dispersal means and are firing in accordance with the rules of engagement."

Israel has accused Hamas, which governs Gaza, and with whom Israel has fought three wars since 2008, of using the protests to incite violence. But Palestinians maintain protesters are being shot while posing no threat to Israeli troops.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the European Union have called for an independent investigation.</s>The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that 105 Palestinians have been seriously injured by Israeli occupation forces since March 30 during their participation in demonstrations of the March of Return.At a news conference in front of Al-Shefa Polyclinic, Ashraf Qedra, the ministry's media spokesman, said:Qedra explained thatThe ministry reported that 129 citizens have been injured in the head and neck.The ministry has also documented the injury of 176 people in upper body parts, and 1027 in the lower part of their bodies, according to Qedra.He continued: "The ministry has also reported that 51 people have been injured in the abdomen and chest, and 68 have been injured in the basin."Qedra explained that there have been aboutHe also mentioned that there have been about 12 injured medical staff members, and the ministry recorded that four emergency and civil defence vehicles have been directly targeted.In a speech during the news conference, Mounir Boursh, director general of pharmacy at the ministry, said that the continued arrival of large numbers of martyrs and injured people is "a great challenge for medical staff, as these cases drain huge quantities of medicines and medical supplies in different sections of the hospitals."He added: "The lack of continuous medical supply and the regular reception of martyrs and injured people in hospitals and health centres have led to an unprecedented scarcity of medicines."Boursh explained that there is a shortage of about 232 medicine types in the main list of the Ministry's stores, with a deficit of 45% in the medicines storage.The Ministry's stores suffer from a severe shortage of medical supplies, asBoursh called on the international humanitarian relief organisations to "support the health sector in Gaza so that it can carry on its services to the sick and injured people."Since March 30, Palestinians have been gathering near the border siege between Gaza and Israel as part of their participation in peaceful demonstrations of the March of Return demanding the return of Palestinian refugees to their towns and villages from which they were displaced in 1948.</s>GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Raed Jadallah belonged to an exclusive club — a small band of surfers who escaped the claustrophobia of blockaded Gaza by riding the waves of the Mediterranean. Now he's immobile, a metal fixation device clamped to his left leg after an Israeli bullet fractured his femur in two places.

The 25-year-old plasterer from a seaside refugee camp said he doesn't know when he'll be able to walk again, let alone surf.

"Sea and surfing are everything to me," he said on Wednesday, a day after being discharged from the hospital, his lower body covered by a blanket as he rested on a sofa at his home.

Jadallah is among 1,297 Palestinians shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers, including snipers, during the past two weeks of mass protests on the Gaza-Israel border, according to a computerized count by 5he Gaza Health Ministry. An additional 1,554 Gaza residents have been treated for tear gas inhalation or injuries by rubber-coated steel pellets.

An AP look at Gaza's health system found crowded hospital rooms lacking basic supplies, detailed electronic records of gunshot victims and dozens of people still suffering from serious wounds. Some acknowledged approaching Israel's border fence during the protests and throwing stones, though they say they were otherwise unarmed. The surge of patients has severely taxed Gaza's clinics and hospitals.

In addition, 33 Palestinians have been killed during this period, including 26 in border demonstrations. The latest casualties came on Thursday, when Israel said it bombed Hamas militant targets in the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding another.

The Israeli military has disputed the Gaza count of wounded, saying that at most dozens were struck by Israeli fire, but it has not offered supporting evidence.

In a response Thursday, the military did not refer to its previous challenge of the figures of wounded Palestinians. It said that it "contends with terrorist organizations that are trying to turn the area between Israel and the Gaza Strip into a combat zone, above and below ground," near Israeli communities.

The casualty figures are at the heart of an intensifying debate over the military's open-fire orders, branded as unlawful by rights groups because soldiers are permitted to use potentially lethal force against unarmed Palestinians approaching the border fence.

Israel has accused Gaza's Hamas rulers of using the protests as a cover for carrying out attacks, including a possible mass breach of the border fence, and says it has a right to defend its sovereign border. It said Thursday that "the tools used by the Israeli military include warnings, riot control measures, and as a last resort, live fire in a precise and measured manner."

The protests have been organized by Hamas, but have also been fueled by widespread despair among the territory's 2 million people. Gaza has endured more than a decade of border closures, imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant group seized the territory in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliament elections.

More bloodshed on the border is likely, with organizers calling for protests to continue until mid-May and Israel saying it won't change its rules of engagement.

Already, the recent surge of patients with gunshot wounds has severely taxed Gaza's clinics and hospitals.

Gaza's health system has been buckling under years of shortages of essential medicines and equipment caused by the blockade and Hamas' power struggle with the rival Palestinian Authority, doctors say. The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority accuses Hamas of selling medicines it sends, while Hamas accuses it of delaying medicine shipments.

The violence comes at a time when 40 percent of basic medicines are no longer in stock in Gaza hospitals, according to the World Health Organization. Equipment is also in short supply. At Gaza's main hospital, Shifa, half of 200 available fixators had been used up for bones broken by bullets, officials said.

Doctors carefully manage scarce resources, said Ayman Sahbani, the spokesman and emergency room director at the Shifa Hospital. Those with relatively simple soft-tissue gunshot wounds are treated and sent home the same day to make room for the most serious cases and new arrivals, he said.

Earlier this week, 64 patients with complications from gunshot wounds — mainly sustained in large protests on two consecutive Fridays — were still hospitalized, filling up orthopedic and surgery wards.

A majority suffered either open, compound or multiple fractures, or damage to blood vessels, said Sahbani, adding that there is concern about permanent disability in some cases.

"A noticeable number of the gunshot injuries comprise an exit point larger than the entry point," he added. The Israeli military did not respond to questions about the type of ammunition used by its snipers, but such wounds could be consistent with rifle fire.

The European Hospital in southern Gaza received 100 people with gunshot wounds last Friday, including 78 who remained hospitalized this week, said spokesman Yehiyeh Nawajha. Among the wounded are four women, he said.

Jadallah, the surfer, was among those shot last Friday. He said he had been throwing stones about 15 meters (yards) from the fence and was just leaving when he was shot.

He said he had been drawn to the protests by the organizers' slogan of a "Great March of Return" to destroyed Palestinian communities in what is now Israel. Hamas leaders have sent mixed signals about a possible border breach, which Israel says it will prevent at all costs.

Two-thirds of Gaza residents, including Jadallah, are descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced from their homes in the 1948 war over Israel's creation.

"We want to return to our land," Jadallah said.

At Shifa, 17-year-old Mohannad Hamouda was in agony from a gunshot wound to the back.

He was hit March 30 while running from tear gas and gunfire toward protesters who had approached the fence. With his parents at his bedside, he would not say whether he was throwing rocks or had gotten close to the frontier.

Hamouda had joined the protests over the objections of his parents. "I was bored, life is grinding here," he said.

Doctors said they were concerned about bullet fragments near his spine and feared surgery to remove them could cause permanent paralysis.

The Gaza Health Ministry runs a data collection system known as "e-hospital."

Detailed injury reports are entered from field hospitals, clinics and Gaza's main hospitals, with patients identified by name, ID number and type of injury. The system eventually detects and removes any duplicates that might occur if a patient is transferred from one hospital to another, said ministry official Hani al-Wehidi.

For example, 82 people were initially admitted to a north Gaza hospital, but four names were later removed to avoid double counting, he said.

He said the count is transparent and reliable. "Anyone can come and see our work," he said.

The U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, has sent more supplies to Gaza hospitals, including 27 essential drugs and medical supplies, including saline and glucose, critical for treating serious injuries.

An Israeli group, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, is sending eight Arab doctors from Israel to Gaza in anticipation of more injuries on Friday. It also will deliver insulin syringes collected by Israeli volunteers in a Facebook campaign.

The group called the Palestinian health care system "one of the major victims" of Israel's blockade.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Raed Jadallah belonged to an exclusive club — a small band of surfers who escaped the claustrophobia of blockaded Gaza by riding the waves of the Mediterranean. Now he’s immobile, a metal fixation device clamped to his left leg after an Israeli bullet fractured his femur in two places.

The 25-year-old plasterer from a seaside refugee camp said he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to walk again, let alone surf.

“Sea and surfing are everything to me,” he said on Wednesday, a day after being discharged from the hospital, his lower body covered by a blanket as he rested on a sofa at his home.

Jadallah is among 1,297 Palestinians shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers, including snipers, during the past two weeks of mass protests on the Gaza-Israel border, according to a computerized count by the Gaza Health Ministry. An additional 1,554 Gaza residents have been treated for tear gas inhalation or injuries by rubber-coated steel pellets.

An Associated Press look at Gaza’s health system found crowded hospital rooms lacking basic supplies, detailed electronic records of gunshot victims and dozens of people still suffering from serious wounds. Some acknowledged approaching Israel’s border fence during the protests and throwing stones, though they say they were otherwise unarmed. The surge of patients has severely taxed Gaza’s clinics and hospitals.

In addition, 33 Palestinians have been killed during this period, including 26 in border demonstrations. The latest casualties came on Thursday, when Israel said it bombed Hamas militant targets in the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding another.

The Israeli military has disputed the Gaza count of wounded, saying that at most dozens were struck by Israeli fire, but it has not offered supporting evidence.

Fares Akram is an Associated Press writer.
Israel opens fire again, with the Gaza Health Ministry claiming one Palestinian was killed and 233 injured as protesters torched tyres and Israeli flags.