IDF troops shoot dead Gaza man, say he had ‘suspicious bag’ as he neared border
Incident ends relative lull in violence along frontier; Hamas praises Palestinians who attacked Israeli forces in Jerusalem, West Bank and were shot dead
Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man who approached the central Gaza border on Thursday morning, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said.
The Israel Defense Forces said troops fired at the man after he was seen approaching the border with two other men in a suspicious way by IDF troops watching the area through surveillance cameras.
“IDF monitors saw three suspects approaching the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip, as one of them was seen digging in the ground while carrying a suspicious bag,” the military said, without further clarifying.
“After he was spotted, IDF troops who were on the scene opened fire at the suspect,” the IDF said.
The military said it was aware of the Palestinian reports that the man had been hit by the gunfire and died, but would not comment further.
Gaza health officials identified the deceased as Mohammad Abd al-Karim Abu Ammar, 40, saying that he had been shot in the neck by live bullets.
According to Gaza media, Abu Ammar had approached the border while “bird-hunting” east of el-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
“Mohammad was attempting to safeguard his children and family’s daily bread by going to hunt birds, as per the season. But the merciless occupation, which we and the world know well, has no pity. The martyr Mohammad was innocent,” his cousin told Palestinian journalist Hassan Islayeh.
#فلسطين تقدم اليوم الشهيد الثالث
الشهيد محمد عمار من غزة الذي استشهد خلال اصطياده الطيور شرق البريج pic.twitter.com/18dRyRyNQw— باسل ابو حسان (@basel_abuhassan) September 30, 2021
He was fatally wounded and pronounced dead a short time later in a nearby hospital, official Hamas media reported.
The incident came amid a relative lull in violence along the border, following a tense period earlier this month that saw repeated rocket attacks and the launching of balloon-borne incendiary devices from the Strip into Israel.
Two other Palestinians were killed on Thursday during confrontations with Israeli forces. Israel Police said Israa Khazimiyah, a 30-year-old woman from a town outside Jenin, tried to carry out a stabbing attack and was shot and killed in Jerusalem’s Old City. A member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, Alaa Zayud, 22, was killed in a predawn shootout with Israeli soldiers near Jenin.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers publicly mourned the two deceased Palestinians, calling them “our people’s heroic martyrs.”
“We repeat that only armed resistance and comprehensive confrontations with the occupation can stop its aggression and expel its settlers from our occupied land,” the terror group said in a statement.
