After several weeks of relative calm, Gazan Palestinians resumed their weekly protests on Friday, with a long spate of clashes along the Strip’s border fence with Israel. Protesters were seen rolling burning tires and hurling stones towards the Israeli soldiers stationed along the border fence, while the Israeli military said that some of the Palestinian protesters even threw firebombs and a grenade. Furthermore, incendiary kites were spotted in the air being sent towards Israel, as part of Palestinian attempts to cause fires within the Jewish state. The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza claimed that a 17-year-old boy was shot dead during the clashes, while another 210 protesters were wounded. The IDF spokesperson’s unit stressed, however, that the Israeli troops had used riot dispersal means and acted “in accordance with standard operating procedures,” based on the rules of engagement, dictated by Jerusalem. Furthermore, Israeli officials accused the Islamist Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, of deliberately provoking violence at the border protests, a charge the Hamas organization denies. In response to the violet riots along the security fence and the damage the protesters caused to the Jewish state’s security infrastructure, the Israeli Air Force reported it targeted two Hamas observation posts in the Gaza Strip.
