22 Gazans injured in border clashes taken to Jordan for treatment

Israel has allowed 22 Palestinian wounded in clashes on the Gaza border with IDF troops to travel to Jordan to receive medical treatment, the army said Wednesday, posting a video of the transfer.

The move was coordinated by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Defense Ministry’s liaison unit to the West Bank and Gaza.

It followed a request made by Jordan’s King Abdullah II, and was coordinated with the Israeli government, the IDF said.

The 22 people join seven other injured Gazans with Jordanian citizenship who were transferred last week from the Strip to Jordan for the same reason, according to the military.

Israel last week rejected a request from Turkey that it be allowed to send a plane to airlift Palestinians wounded in the border riots, Israeli and Turkish official confirmed.

Turkey sent the request to Israel via international medical organizations, asking for permission to send a plane to Ben Gurion Airport and take wounded Palestinians back to Turkey for treatment.

Senior sources told Channel 10 news that after discussions between the Prime Minister’s Office and Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, the request was denied for political and security reasons.

Israel and Turkey traded tit-for-tat measures over Israel’s response to the Gaza riots, with the countries expelling and humiliating each others’ envoys.

Last month Israel initially rejected a request to transfer two patients wounded in Gaza border clashes with IDF soldiers to the West Bank for treatment.

The High Court ultimately ruled that Israel had to allow the patients to receive treatment, but by that time both patients had required leg amputations because Gaza doctors did not have the proper equipment to treat them.

Since March 30, tens of thousands of Palestinians have taken part in weekly protests, which Israel says are orchestrated by the ruling Hamas terror group in Gaza as cover for attempted attacks and breaches of the border fence.

The new US embassy in Jerusalem was inaugurated last Monday in the capital’s Arnona neighborhood, on a day that saw massive clashes and riots on the Gaza border.

On Saturday, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during Monday’s border clashes had risen to 64, with more than 2,700 wounded in the violence. Hamas, which openly seeks to destroy Israel, has admitted that 50 of the dead were members of the terror group. Three others were Islamic Jihad members.

The weeks-long campaign of protests against Israel, known collectively as the “March of Return,” were to end last week, but Hamas leaders have said they want them to continue. About 1,000 protesters took part in demonstrations last Friday.