GAZA, Palestinian Territory — A Palestinian journalist who was shot by Israeli troops while covering a demonstration on the Gaza-Israel border earlier this month died of his wounds on Wednesday, the Gaza Health Ministry announced.

With the death, Ahmed Abu Hussein became the second journalist to be fatally shot during weeks of Palestinian border protests.

Abu Hussein, 24, was wounded in the abdomen on April 13 at a protest near Jebaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip. He was later transferred to a Palestinian hospital in the West Bank, and then to an Israeli hospital, where he died Wednesday.

Photos and amateur video from the scene show him far from the border and wearing a blue jacket and helmet marked “TV” when he was shot. The video shows him in a group of bystanders located some 50 metres (yards) behind a wall of burning tires that had been set on fire by demonstrators.

Hussein was working for “Voice of People” — a radio station linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the U.S. and the EU.

Another journalist, Yasser Murtaja, was killed earlier this month while covering a protest. Israel has claimed he was a Hamas militant, but provided no evidence. His family has denied the claim. Murtaja had recently been hired by a Norwegian advocacy group and had also been screened by the U.S. government before his company received a USAID grant.

Since protests began in late March, 35 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,500 wounded by Israeli soldiers firing across the border. Rights groups say open-fire regulations are unlawful because they permit troops to use potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters. The U.N. and European Union have also questioned Israel’s use of deadly force.
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Israel says it’s defending its sovereign border, including nearby communities, and that troops only target instigators. But a handful of amateur videos have contradicted this claim.

Israel accuses Hamas of using the protests as a cover for damaging the fence and preparing to infiltrate and carry out attacks. There is considerable fear among Israelis of a mass breach in which Gazans stream across, wreaking havoc or carrying out attacks.

The army had no immediate comment on Abu Hussein’s shooting. </s> Share this article with Google Plus

The family of an 18-year-old Palestinian man who died in the Gaza border protests last week say he was unarmed and shot in the back as he ran away from the Israeli military.

As harrowing footage emerged of the moment the teenager was gunned down, his family spoke out to say he was not a member of Islamist militant group Hamas.

Abdel Fattah Abd al-Nabi was shot by an Israeli sniper in the back on Friday.

The video shows him running in no-man’s-land while carrying a tyre.

Metres away from reaching a crowd of people, his body crumples to the ground.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) defended its actions and has called the footage ‘Hamas propaganda’.

The IDF is said to have claimed the video has been edited and does not show al-Nabi’s potentially provocative actions before he was killed.

But the teenager’s family claim he was unarmed.

‘He had no gun, no Molotov, a tyre. Does that harm the Israelis, a tyre?’ his brother, Mohamed al-Nabi, 22, told the Washington Post.

‘He wasn’t going toward the Israeli side. He was running away.’

Officials said another man was killed by Israeli gunfire in Gaza on Tuesday, Palestinian medics said, raising the death toll from clashes along the border to 19.

Israel’s defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, yesterday said that the military will not change its tough response to Hamas-led mass protests near Gaza’s border with Israel, warning that those who approach the border are putting their lives at risk.

The planned six-week intermittent border protests are expected to escalate again this Friday, with many anticpiating more bloodshed.

The Palestinians’ ambassador at the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, appealed to the U.N. Security Council for immediate international protection for Palestinian civilians, especially in Gaza.

He charged in a letter to the council that Israel has adopted ‘a shoot-to-kill policy’ during what he called peaceful protests.

The international group Human Rights Watch accused Lieberman and other senior Israeli officials of unlawfully calling for the use of live fire against Palestinian protesters who posed no imminent threat to life.

Last Friday, thousands of Palestinians marched near the border fence between Israel and Gaza, with families setting up camps several hundred meters from the front line.

Smaller groups moved closer to the fence, throwing stones, hurling firebombs or burning tires.

Israeli troops were lined up on the other side of the fence, including snipers perched on high earth embankments overlooking Gaza.

Palestinian health officials have said 18 Palestinians were killed on that day, making it the bloodiest day in Gaza since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.

More than 750 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire, according to Gaza health officials, with others claiming the number of wounded was closer to 1,500.

Plans have been circulated on social media to burn large numbers of tires on Friday, in hopes that thick black smoke would block the view of Israeli snipers.

Hamas has said the protests would culminate in a ‘March of Return’ implying the demonstrators would at some point try cross the border fence into Israeli territory. </s> President Mahmoud Abbas called on Monday for Palestinians to keep their children from protests along the border between Israel and Gaza, warning of a "handicapped" generation as the death toll from Israeli fire on protesters in the Gaza Strip mounts.

"Keep the young men from the border, move the children away, we do not want to become handicapped people," he said in a speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

49 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds - more than 140 seriously - injured by Israeli fire since regular protests and clashes broke out along the Gaza border on March 30.

At least six of the dead have been aged 18 or younger.

Speaking at the opening of a rare meeting of the Palestinian National Council, Abbas said he supported peaceful protests along the border but wanted to "protect the next generation".

The deaths have led to criticism of Israel's use of live ammunition.

After a 15-year-old was killed, United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Nickolay Mladenov wrote on Twitter: "It is OUTRAGEOUS to shoot at children... #Children must be protected from #violence, not exposed to it."

Israel says it only opens fire when necessary to stop damage to the Gaza fence, infiltrations and attackers.

But no Israelis have been hurt, and U.N. chief Antonio Guterres and the European Union have called for an independent investigation into the deaths.

Israel has rejected such calls, saying its open-fire rules are necessary to protect the border.

For the last four weeks, Gazans have staged mostly peaceful rallies along the border to demand the "right of return" to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

The rallies are part of a six-week demonstration that will culminate on May 15, which will mark the 70th anniversary of Israel's establishment -- an event Palestinians refer to as "The Catastrophe". </s> JEBALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israel's defense minister said Saturday that Hamas leaders are the "only culprits" in continued bloodshed on the Gaza border, as the EU and a top U.N. official made new demands to investigate shootings of unarmed Palestinians by Israeli soldiers, including the killing of a 14-year-old boy.

Avigdor Lieberman's comments on Twitter came a day after four Palestinians, including the teen, were shot and killed by Israeli army fire from across the border fence, according to Gaza health officials.

More than 150 Palestinians were wounded Friday, in the fourth round of weekly Hamas-led mass protests in the border area.

The teen, Mohammed Ayyoub, was about 150 meters (yards) from the fence when he was hit, Gaza photographer Abed Alhakeem Abu Rish told The Associated Press. He said that the boy was about to take cover when he was shot and fell to the ground, collapsing head first.

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.

The rising Palestinian casualty toll signaled that Israel's military is sticking to its open-fire rules despite international criticism of the use of lethal force against unarmed protesters.

Israel has said it is defending its sovereign border, including Israeli communities on the other side. It has alleged that Hamas uses the protests as cover for attacks and for damaging the border fence. Rights groups have said Israel's open-fire orders are unlawful because they effectively allow soldiers to open fire on unarmed demonstrators.

The marches are part of what organizers have billed as an escalating showdown with Israel, to culminate in a mass march on May 15.

The top Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said Friday that people should get ready for large crowds spilling across the border that day.

"Our people will outnumber the occupation and force it from our land," he said, referring to Israel.

The latest killings sparked new demands by a senior U.N. official and by the European Union for an investigation.

Nikolay Mladenov, a top U.N. envoy in the region, said on Twitter that it is "outrageous to shoot at children."

The European Union urged the Israeli military to "refrain from using lethal force against unarmed protesters."

Mohammed Ayyoub's father, Ibrahim, said Saturday that his son was killed in cold blood.

"Mohammed did not deserve to be executed," the 42-year-old said as mourners streamed to the family's shack in the Jebaliya refugee camp. "He was not holding a stone or a gun ... Mohammed was not running toward the fence."

The Israeli military has not commented on the latest shootings. It has said it will not allow protesters to get close to or damage the fence. On Friday, it dropped leaflets over Gaza, urging protesters to stay away.

Lieberman, the Israeli defense minister, said on Twitter that "the only culprits in the death of the ... boy in Gaza are Hamas leaders."

He said they are "cowardly leaders who hide behind women and children and send them forward as a human shield, so that they can continue to dig tunnels and carry out terrorist actions against" Israel.

Hamas says the protests are aimed at breaking a border blockade that was imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant group overran Gaza in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliament elections.

The marches also press for a "right of return" of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from homes in the 1948 war over Israel's creation. Palestinians mark May 15, the anniversary of Israel's founding, as their "nakba," or catastrophe, to mourn their mass uprooting.

While Hamas and smaller Palestinian factions have taken a lead as organizers, the mass marches are also fueled by growing desperation among Gaza's 2 million residents.

The border blockade has trapped nearly all of them in the tiny coastal territory, gutted the economy and deepened poverty. Gaza residents typically get fewer than five hours of electricity per day, while unemployment has soared above 40 percent. </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> Days after the bloodshed along the border with Gaza, Israel's defense minister, Avigdor Liberman, has vowed a lethal response to those who approach the border fence again."Anyone who comes close to the fence will endanger their lives," Liberman said in a video message for the Jerusalem Post from Kibbutz Holit, close to the southern Gaza Strip. Liberman emphasized that all protestors would face Israeli snipers.The warning came just hours after a Palestinian man, Ahmad Arafeh, fell victim to Israeli gunfire along the Gaza border, bringing the death toll to 18 since Friday when around 30,000 Palestinians started rallying. A six-week campaign called 'The Great Return March' is a protest against Israeli settlements on the former Palestinian territory which is now Israel.The bloodshed elicited international concern and condemnation. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, and human rights group Amnesty International called for an "independent and transparent investigation."However,The minister said troops acted appropriately and fired only at Palestinian protestors who posed a threat. The IDF claimed all of the Palestinians who were shot dead at the border were Hamas fighters.Human Rights Watch defined such claims as attemptsPalestinians said the protestors were unarmed and defenseless refugees, as some of them were demanding the right to return home to the territory presently occupied by Israel, which was lost during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The territory was occupied by the State of Israel since the moment of its formation.Ahead of looming protests this Friday, Israel's Foreign Ministry released a video in which it warned Hamas was "preparing for violent riots and armed combat on the Israeli border this coming Friday."The video is in addition to a Foreign Ministry message that Palestinians "are violent rioters, not peaceful demonstrators."During his visit to the border of the Gaza Strip, the defense minister said that protestors were "not innocent civilians who came to protest." Liberman told the Jerusalem Post: "Most of those who were killed are well-known terrorists who are active in Hamas' military wing or in Islamic Jihad."Human Rights Watch deputy director for the Middle East, Eric Goldstein, said: "Israeli soldiers were not merely using excessive force, but were apparently acting on orders that all but ensured a bloody military response to the Palestinian demonstrations." The organization called on the Israeli government to recognize that "even in the absence of serious domestic oversight, officials who order unlawful lethal force may become subject to prosecution abroad as a matter of universal jurisdiction or in international judicial forums." </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. </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> By AFP - Apr 04,2018 - Last updated at Apr 04,2018

The mother of a Palestinian who was killed along the Israel border with Gaza, reacts at a hospital in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday (Reuters photo)

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces on the Gaza border on Tuesday, the health ministry in the strip said, days after occupation forces killed 17 Palestinian demonstrators during border protests.

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

Israeli occupation forces said they were looking into the incident and could not immediately comment.

It was the first death since at least 17 Palestinians were killed on Friday during a protest calling for the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

It was the deadliest day since the 2014 war between Israel and Gaza’s 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 into Friday’s violence.

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 occupation forces’ actions on Friday, saying they opened fire “only when necessary” against those throwing stones and firebombs or rolling tyres.

It claimed there were attempts to damage the fence and infiltrate Israel.

No casualties were reported among Israelis.

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”, affirming that border protests posed no immediate threat to Israeli occupation forces.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accuses Israel of responsibility for the deaths of 16 protestors at the border with Gaza. Israel accuses Palestinian terrorists of using civilians as human shields. A video begins circulating on social media appearing to show an unarmed teenager being shot.