Palestinians say Gazan injured in border clashes died of wounds

A Palestinian shot by Israeli forces during protests and clashes on the Gaza border died of his wounds Wednesday, Palestinian health officials in Gaza and the West Bank said.

Naji Ghonaim, 23, was wounded several days ago near Rafah in southern Gaza, West Bank health ministry officials said, without giving the specific date or circumstances of his injury.

He was later transferred to Jerusalem for treatment but died Wednesday morning, the Ramallah-based ministry said in a statement.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry confirmed Ghonaim’s death.

At least 122 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire since the weekly border protests started, according to authorities in Gaza, which is run by the Islamist terror movement Hamas. Dozens of the fatalities were members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the terror groups have acknowledged.

Israel says its forces have opened fire to stop attempts to harm soldiers, damage the fence, infiltrate Israel and attempt to carry out attacks. Israel accuses Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since 2008, of seeking to use the protests as cover to carry out violence.

Separately on Tuesday and Wednesday, Palestinian terrorist groups from Gaza fired dozens of mortars and rockets at Israel, in the largest armed confrontation between the two sides since the 2014 war.

Over the course of 22 hours, from 7 a.m. Tuesday to 5:17 a.m. Wednesday, sirens were triggered at least 166 times in southern Israel, according to the IDF Home Front Command, by mortar fire, rockets or, in some cases, heavy machine gun fire.

A reported Egyptian-brokered informal ceasefire between Palestinian terror groups and Israel appeared to be holding on Wednesday morning, with both sides blaming the other for the flareup.

As of Wednesday morning, the military had yet to release a final tally for the number of projectiles fired at southern Israel from Gaza, but it seemed likely to approach 200.

Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.