Palestinian said wounded by IDF fire in Gaza riot

A Palestinian man was moderately wounded Friday by IDF gunfire during clashes near the Gaza Strip border fence, Palestinian reports said.

The riot took place on the eastern border of the Strip, close to Kibbutz Nahal Oz.

Earlier Friday, a Palestinian man was shot dead by IDF troops when he ran toward a guard post near the West Bank settlement of Ofra, north of Ramallah, in the West Bank.

Initial reports said that the man opened fire on the post and Israeli troops returned fire, but the IDF later said it appeared that the suspect was not armed when he approached the guard post near the adjacent Palestinian village of Silwad. He did not heed the soldiers’ repeated orders to halt and was shot, Army Radio reported.

Channel 2 said Friday evening that the Palestinian was being described by security forces as a terrorist. It noted that Israel announced a security alert earlier in the week amid reports that a Palestinian suspect had disappeared from his home after announcing his intention to carry out a terror attack. The alert was cancelled on Friday morning.

A senior Palestinian official later named the man as Iyad Hamad, 38, and said he suffered from mental illness and was unarmed, Channel 2 said.