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. </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> Israeli troops kill Palestinian near Gaza border

Sharelines

Gaza: Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said that a "suspect had approached a restricted area in the southern Gaza Strip."



Soldiers then "fired warning shots into the air, and when the suspect failed to halt, they fired shots towards him. He then fled the area," the spokeswoman said.



Gaza's health ministry said the man was a farmer who had been on his own land. Israel's military restricts Palestinians inside the Hamas-controlled territory from approaching the border, where violence frequently flares up. </s> GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli tank shelling killed two members of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad and wounded a third in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, medical officials said, after weeks of border protests that have drawn lethal army fire.

Israel's military confirmed that it targeted an observation post, calling the attack retaliation for a bomb that had been placed next to the border fence overnight. The bomb was detonated by army engineers, causing no casualties, the military said on Twitter.

Hostilities over the Gaza frontier have soared since Palestinians began mass-demonstrations on March 30, which Israel deems cover for attempts to breach the border fence.

At least 113 Palestinians have been killed and thousands hurt by army gunfire in the protests, drawing foreign censure.

There have been no Israeli casualties along the Gaza frontier, but Israel has reported extensive damage to farmland on its side of the border from firebomb-bearing kites flown over from Gaza.

Gaza is under the control of Hamas, an Islamist movement hostile to Israel. Islamic Jihad operates with a measure of independence from Hamas.

In Israel, the military announced the death on Saturday of a soldier who was injured during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday when Palestinians dropped a stone slab on his head from a building. Hundreds attended his funeral in Jerusalem on Sunday. </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> Relatives of a Palestinian farmer who was killed along Israel border with Gaza, react at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip March 30, 2018. — Reuters picGAZA CITY, March 30 — A Palestinian farmer was killed in Gaza by an Israeli strike early this morning, the health ministry in the enclave said, ahead of a day of major protests.

A spokesman for the ministry said one farmer was killed and another injured by Israeli artillery fire near Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

The ministry identified the victim as 27-year-old Omar Samour.

Local eyewitnesses said he was on his land near the border when the incident occurred.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli army of the strike.

It comes just hours before the start of a major demonstration, which is set to kick off six weeks of protests leading up to the inauguration of the new US embassy in Jerusalem around May 14.

Dubbed “The Great March of Return”, the protests, which include hundreds of people camping close to the sealed and heavily guarded Israeli-Gaza border, has the backing of Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas.

The protests have raised concerns in Israel about potential border breaches, with the army adding hundreds of reinforcements, including more than 100 special forces snipers, along the border in recent days.

Hamas has fought three wars with Israel since 2008. — AFP </s> JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops fatally shot two Palestinians who infiltrated the country from Gaza and attacked soldiers with explosives Sunday night, and in a separate incident killed another Palestinian who tried to breach the border, the military said.

Another Palestinian was detained in the latter incident, and two more were caught trying to cross the border in a third case, the military said.

The Gaza border has been tense in recent weeks, with the Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza urging mass Palestinian protests there every Friday as part of a weeks-long campaign against a decade-old blockade of the territory. The protests have turned violent and 39 Palestinians have been killed during the unrest, which began March 30.

Israel says that it is defending its sovereign border, including nearby communities, and that its troops target only instigators. Israel accuses Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, of trying to carry out attacks under the guise of the mass protests.

The military said that "two terrorists who infiltrated into Israel hurled explosive devices" at soldiers Sunday night. The soldiers returned fire, killing them.

About a half hour earlier, two Palestinians damaged the security fence and tried to cross into Israel. Troops opened fire, killing one, the military said. The other was detained for questioning, it said.

In a third incident, soldiers spotted two Palestinians trying to breach the border. They were arrested and found to have knives and wire cutters on their persons, the military said.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas in Gaza.

Also Sunday, the Israeli army said most of the deaths of Palestinians during the Gaza unrest have been unintentional. An unidentified senior officer in Israel's southern command told the newspaper Haaretz that snipers have been aiming at protesters' legs, but people have been killed after bending down, when struck by a ricocheting bullet or when a sniper misses the target.

A second senior officer confirmed the report, saying that while there is no exact breakdown, the "overwhelming majority" of deaths were unintentional, including a teenage boy and two Palestinian journalists who apparently were caught in crossfire. He said an exception was Friday, when soldiers opened fire at a large crowd that attempted to break through the border fence, killing three people.

The officer spoke on condition of anonymity under military guidelines.

Israel has been accused by the United Nations, European Union and rights groups of using excessive force against unarmed protesters. Israel says it is aiming only at instigators, and accuses Hamas of using civilians for cover to carry out attacks.

Israel says some of those protesting have tried to damage the border fence or plant explosives along it. Others have hurled improvised explosives and firebombs at soldiers while others have flown kites with burning rags attached to set Israeli fields on fire.

There is considerable fear among Israelis of a mass breach in which Gazans stream across, militants mixed in, wreaking havoc. Israel has warned that anyone approaching the border fence is risking their lives and accused Hamas of cynically exploiting civilians for its agenda.

Hamas has attacked Israelis with suicide bombings, shootings and rockets over the years. For more than a decade the group has tightly controlled Gaza, quashing dissent.

Hamas says the protests are aimed at breaking a crippling border blockade that was imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant group overran Gaza in 2007.

The blockade has devastated Gaza's economy, made it virtually impossible for people to enter and exit the territory, and left residents with just a few hours of electricity a day. Tap water is undrinkable and its Mediterranean coast has been polluted with untreated waste. Life in the coastal strip has deteriorated further in recent months, with rising unemployment and grinding poverty.

Other blockade-busting tactics by Hamas have failed over the years, including three cross-border wars with Israel and repeated rounds of unsuccessful power-sharing talks with the West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The last round collapsed, in part because Hamas refused to disarm.

The protests also press for a "return" of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were displaced in the 1948 war over Israel's creation.

The protests are to culminate May 15, the anniversary of Israel's founding. Palestinians mark the date as their "nakba," or catastrophe. </s> A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces on the Gaza border Tuesday, the health ministry in the strip said, as tensions remained high days after 17 people were killed when a mass demonstration led to clashes

The ministry identified the dead man as 25-year-old Ahmed Arafa, saying he was shot in the chest during clashes east of Bureij in central Gaza, reported AFP.

Israel’s army said in a statement that “throughout the day, tens of Palestinians participated in violent riots in four main locations along the Gaza border.”

It added that “troops used riot dispersal means, and fired towards suspects who were involved in damaging the security fence.”

It was the first death since at least 17 Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops on Friday when a protest by tens of thousands of people resulted in clashes. That was the deadliest day since the 2014 war between Israel and Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas.

Smaller protests have continued since, with thousands expected to take to the streets again on Friday.

Israel’s use of live fire has come under criticism from rights groups, while the European Union and UN chief Antonio Guterres have called for an independent investigation.

But earlier Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued a new warning, saying those who approach the fence between Gaza and Israel will put “their life in danger.”

Israel has defended its soldiers’ actions on Friday, saying they opened fire only when necessary against those throwing stones and firebombs or rolling tyres at soldiers.

It said there were attempts to damage the fence and infiltrate Israel, while alleging there was also an attempted gun attack against soldiers along the border.

Palestinians say protesters were fired on while posing no threat to soldiers.

Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said Friday’s killings were unlawful and “calculated,” also saying the border protests posed no immediate threat to Israeli soldiers.
Gazan officials say Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian farmer on his own land in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli military spokesperson said that he got too close to the border fence.