Palestinian said critically hurt in Gaza border clashes with IDF
Military says dozens taking part in riot, adds troops responding with tear gas and live fire in some cases to disperse crowd
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Two Palestinians were wounded, one of whom critically, by Israeli ordnance on the border with the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry reported.
The Israel Defense Forces told The Times of Israel that dozens of Palestinians were rioting along the border, including setting fire to tires.
A military spokesperson said troops had used tear gas and live fire in some cases to disperse the crowd.
The health ministry in Gaza said the two men were wounded along the fence in the northern Gaza Strip, near Jabalia. One was listed in critical condition after sustaining an injury to his face, according to the ministry.
The Hamas-affiliated Shehab News Agency said the man was hit in the head by a tear gas grenade. The report added that dozens of other Palestinians were treated for tear gas inhalation, and one was shot in the leg.
Footage published by Palestinian media outlets showed one of the wounded men being taken from the scene on the back of a motorcycle.
Another clip from near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis showed tear gas being launched by IDF troops toward a group of Palestinians on the border.
شاهد | قوات الاحتلال تطلق قنابل الغاز على متظاهرين شرق خانيونس جنوب قطاع #غزة.#فلسطين #جمعة_مباركة pic.twitter.com/qrbCnLNlJi
— Rawan Eid (@RawanEi00146645) February 24, 2023
Similar demonstrations were held along the Gaza border — as well as in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — on Thursday, following a deadly Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Nablus a day earlier.
Police raised their alert level Wednesday night over fears of revenge attacks, amid angry threats from Palestinian terror organizations and widespread international condemnation after 11 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the raid targeting members of the Lion’s Den terror group.
Early Thursday, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired six rockets at Israel in response to the raid, the deadliest in the West Bank since 2005, when the United Nations began tracking such figures. Five of the projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system and the sixth landed in an open field. The IDF later responded with airstrikes on Hamas positions in Gaza.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been high in recent months.
A string of Palestinian terror attacks in Jerusalem have left 11 people dead and several more seriously hurt.
For the past year, the IDF has been conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks. Over 60 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the year, most of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under circumstances that are being investigated.
