JERUSALEM (JTA) — A 25-year-old Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli troops near the border in the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinians are reporting.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man as Ahmed Omar Arfa and said he was shot in his chest with live fire east of the Bureij refugee camp, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. He died at a Gaza hospital, according to the report.

Arfa was attempting to vandalize the border fence when he was shot, Israel’s Hadashot news reported, citing Palestinian reports.

Wafa reported that 17 Palestinian men have been killed since Palestinian protests started Friday on the border with the March of Return. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been injured, the Gaza Health Ministry told Wafa. </s> GAZA, April 29, 2018 (WAFA) – A Palestinian Sunday was shot and injured in the foot with live ammunition fired by Israeli forces along Gaza borders with Israel to the east of Khan Younis city to the south of the Gaza Strip, said sources.

Forces stationed along the borders reportedly opened fire at a Palestinian youth who was identified as Saif al-Najjar, after he allegedly approached the border fence near al-Awdeh refugee camp to the east of Khan Younis city, shooting and injuring him in the foot.

T.R. </s> GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Latest on developments related to Gaza protests (all times local):

The Hamas militant wing is suggesting that a Palestinian engineer and lecturer shot dead in Malaysia was one of its commanders.

The armed wing of Hamas has opened a mourning house in Gaza Saturday for Fadi al-Batsh.

A main banner at the entrance of the tent described al-Batsh as a member of the military wing and "a commander."

Ten masked militants in camouflage uniforms stood in a line outside the tent in Jabaliya, the slain man's hometown, to greet mourners. The ceremony is typical for senior Hamas commanders.

A photographer says a Palestinian teen who was killed by Israeli army fire was dozens of meters (yards) from the Gaza border fence when he was hit by a bullet.

Gaza health officials have identified Mohammed Ayyoub, either 15 or 14 years old, as one of four Palestinians killed Friday by Israeli troops firing from across the fence in the fourth round of weekly Hamas-led protests near the border.

Photographer Abed Alhakeem Abu Rish said Saturday he saw the teen standing about 150 meters (164 yards) from the fence. He says Ayyoub was about to take cover behind a low sand berm when he was shot and fell to the ground.

Abu Rish's photographs show the teen as he collapses head first and then lies motionless in the same spot.

The European Union has urged the Israeli military to "refrain from using lethal force against unarmed protesters," after four Palestinians, including a teen-age boy, were killed by army fire in protests along Gaza's border with Israel.

In Saturday's statement, the European Union's diplomatic service called for a full investigation of Friday's shootings.

Friday marked the fourth round of weekly mass border protests, led by Gaza's ruling Hamas group.

The marches are aimed, in part, at breaking a border blockade of Gaza enforced by Israel and Egypt since 2007, when the Islamic militant group seized the territory, a year after winning Palestinian parliament elections.

Since late March, 32 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,600 wounded by Israeli army fire in these protests, according to Gaza health officials.

Israel's defense minister says Gaza's Hamas rulers are the "only culprits" in the death of a Palestinian boy who was killed by Israeli army fire in protests on the Gaza-Israel border.

Avigdor Lieberman alleged on Twitter that Hamas uses women and children as human shields. His comments Saturday came after a top U.N. envoy in the region, Nikolay Mladenov, said it is "outrageous to shoot at children" and demanded an investigation.

The Israeli military has not commented on the killing of Mohammed Ayyoub. Gaza health officials initially gave his age as 15, but a local rights group, citing official documents, said he was 14.

Ayyoub was one of four Palestinians killed Friday by Israeli army fire in the fourth round of weekly border protests led by the Islamic militant Hamas.

Health officials say Israeli soldiers firing from across a border fence have killed four Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, and wounded more than 150 others as several thousand people in blockaded Gaza staged a fourth round of weekly protests on the border with Israel.

Huge black plumes of smoke from burning tires engulfed the border area on Friday. Some of the activists threw stones toward the fence or flew kites with flaming rags dangling from their tails.

The latest deaths brought to 32 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in protests since late March. More than 1,600 have been wounded by live rounds in the past three weeks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. </s> The border between the Gaza Strip and Israel in February, 2018.

A 59-year-old Palestinian farmer died after being shot by Israeli forces in Gaza on Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Strip said.

According to Palestinian reports, the man, Muhammad Atah Abu Jama, was shot while working on the agricultural plot of land he owned east of Khan Younis. The Palestinian Health Ministry said he was moderately injured by Israeli fire and evacuated to the hospital. His condition later deteriorated and doctors pronounced him dead.

According to the Israeli army, the man entered a restricted buffer zone and approached Gaza's border fence with Israel. He was shot after army forces feared he would try to cross.

Eyewitnesses quoted in Palestinian reports said the farmer was alone and there were no clashes in the area when he was shot by soldiers stationed at an observation post.

On Friday, clashes broke out in multiple locations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported 16 moderate to light wounded from live fire.

Last Sunday, a Palestinian man was shot to death by Israel Navy forces Sunday after the vessel he was on sailed past the authorized fishing zone off the northern Gaza Strip.

According to an IDF spokesman, the boat, which was carrying three men, did not respond to calls from the Israeli military before the latter opened fire. The two other men on board were detained for interrogation. </s> A farmer has been shot dead by Israeli troops while working on his land in Gaza strip, Palestinian health officials said. According to Israelis, however, the “suspect” approached a “restricted zone” and fled after being shot at.

The incident took place on Saturday near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. According to Palestinian health officials, a 59-year-old farmer was shot in the back by the Israeli Defiance Forces (IDF) while he was working on his land near the border fence. The man was gravely wounded and died hours after the shooting.

The IDF, however, has spun another story, stating that the troops identified a “suspect” approaching a restricted area near the border in the southern Gaza Strip. The servicemen then fired “warning shots into the air, and when the suspect failed to halt, they fired shots towards him,” an IDF spokeswoman said as quoted by Reuters. The “suspect” fled the area afterward, she added.

The incident comes only a week after IDF soldiers attacked a “suspicious” Palestinian fishing boat that breached the boundaries of a designated fishing zone. That shooting resulted in the death of one fisherman, while two others were detained for questioning.

Israel ramped up its security measures at the border with Gaza following an incident last month, when four IDF soldiers were injured in a blast. The soldiers were hit by an IED placed on the border fence and disguised as a flag.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been soaring since US President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy there. The move effectively violated UN resolutions on the status of Jerusalem and it was condemned by the majority of Muslim countries and other nations. </s> Updated 4.30pm: A Palestinian man has been killed by Israeli gunfire and 40 people have been injured in protests on the Gaza-Israel border, health officials said.

Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said the man was killed near the Gaza town of Khan Younis.

He was said to have been killed by a shot to the head.

Mr al-Kidra said 40 people were injured, five of them seriously, but did not provide a breakdown of the types of injuries.

The casualties were the first as new violent incidents erupted on Friday along the Gaza-Israel border fence.

The latest death brings to 23 the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza over the past week, including 17 protesters.

In the most recent protest Palestinian protesters burned tyres, sending black smoke billowing into the air and prompting Israeli troops to fire tear gas and live fire.

Today's march was the second in what Gaza's Hamas rulers said would be several weeks of protests against a decade-old border blockade of the territory.

Israel has accused the Islamic militant group of using the protests as a cover for attacking Israel's border, and has warned that those approaching the fence put their lives at risk.

On Friday, thousands of Palestinians streamed to five tent encampments organisers had set up at various points several hundred metres from the border fence.

In one camp near the border community of Khuzaa, activists moved closer to the fence and torched large piles of tyres, engulfing the area in black smoke meant to shield them from Israeli snipers.

Troops on the other side of the fence responded with live fire, tear gas and rubber-coated steel pellets. Water cannons trained a stream of thick liquid at the fence.

Within minutes, several young men with gunshot wounds began arriving at a field clinic at the camp.

Mohammed Ashour, 20, who had been among the first to set tyres on fire, had been shot in the right arm. He rested on a stretcher placed on the ground.

"We came here because we want dignity," he said before paramedics carried him to an ambulance to be transported to the strip's main hospital.

An Israeli military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, portrayed the protests as riots, and said Hamas organisers were trying to use them as a diversion to "open up the fence and then to insert terrorists into Israel".

Israel has drawn sharp criticism for its open-fire orders along the border.

The UN human rights office said it had indications that Israeli forces used "excessive force" against protesters last week.

Rights groups have branded orders permitting the use of lethal force against unarmed protesters as unlawful. A leading Israeli rights group, B'Tselem, issued a rare appeal to Israeli soldiers this week to refuse "grossly illegal" open-fire orders.

Lt Col Conricus said snipers are used "sparingly" and only against those that pose a "significant threat".

As well as the protesters, six other deaths were three gunmen killed in what Israel said were attempts to attack the border and three men who were struck by Israeli tank fire. </s> Palestinian mourners carry the body of nurse Razan al-Najar, 21, during her funeral in Khan Younis on Saturday. The young Palestinian nurse was shot dead on Friday by Israeli soldiers during clashes near the border fence in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo by Haitham Imad/EPA

June 2 (UPI) -- Funeral of a 21-year-old medic shot and killed as she was trying to give aid to a protester drew thousands of Palestinians on Saturday.

Medical workers dressed in white uniforms were part of the funeral procession for Razan al-Najjar, who witnesses say was shot by Israeli soldiers near the border fence Friday.

Witnesses said Razan was killed while trying to evacuate a wounded protester lying on the Israeli side of the fence after cutting a hole to get through.

She was wearing her medic's vest as she approached the fence with both of her arms raised to show Israeli soldiers she posed no threat but was shot in the chest, according to the witnesses.

The protests, dubbed the Great March of Return, began as a six-week campaign organized by Palestinians to rally on Fridays near the Gaza-Israel border to demand Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return to what is now Israel.

Since the conflict began in March, more than 120 Palestinians have been killed at the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials say they have a right to defend the border during Palestinian protests at the fence.

The Israeli military on Saturday said that it would investigate the death but said its troops worked "in accordance with standard operating procedures."

"The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) constantly works to draw operational lessons and reduce the number of casualties in the area of the Gaza Strip security fence," according to a statement. "Unfortunately, the Hamas terror organization deliberately and methodically places civilians in danger."

On Friday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley vetoed a resolution that would have offered "international protection" for Palestinian civilians.

Kuwait introduced the resolution to the U.N. Security Council as a response to recent violent escalations between Palestinians and Israeli security forces on the Gaza Strip. </s> Four Palestinians, including a 14-year-old, were killed by Israeli fire in new clashes along the Gaza border Friday, the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled strip said.

Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP that Mohammed al-Houm, 14, and Iyad Al-Shaar, 18, were shot in separate incidents "by live ammunition from the (Israeli) occupation forces".

He later reported two more Palestinians had been shot dead, without immediately identifying them.

The Israeli army said some 20,000 "rioters" had gathered at multiple sites along the border.

It said the protestors hurled "grenades and explosive devices in several different locations".

It said troops were firing "in accordance with standard operating procedures" but did not go into specific cases.

Palestinians have been protesting at least weekly along the Gaza border since March.

At least 191 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in that time, the majority during border protests.

Smaller numbers have been hit by airstrikes or tank fire.

The protests are demanding the right of Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return to their homes, now in Israel.

Israel says any such mass return would mean the end of it as a Jewish state and accuses Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas of orchestrating the protests. </s> GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Palestinian Health Ministry says a farmer has died after being shot by Israeli troops near the Gaza border.

The ministry says the 59-year-old farmer was shot in the back Saturday as he worked his land near the border fence and died hours later from his wounds.

The Israeli military says it identified a suspect approaching a restricted area in the southern Gaza Strip and troops first fired warning shots into the air. When the suspect failed to halt, it said forces fired at him and he fled the area.

Israel has vowed to take stricter measures toward people approaching the fence after a bomb explosion wounded four soldiers there last month. Israel accused Palestinian demonstrators, who hold weekly protests there, of planting the device.
A Palestinian youth is shot and injured at the border near al-Awdeh after approaching the border fence.