Israeli tank shelling in the Gaza Strip has killed at least three people, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources.

The attack on Sunday targeted an observation post manned by Islamic Jihad fighters after an explosive device was left near the Israel-Gaza fence, Israeli military officials said.

Two of the killed were identified as 25-year-old Hussein al-Amour, 28-year-old Abdul Haleem al-Naqa, according to the Palestinian health ministry. A third person, 25-year-old Naseem Marwan al-Amour, succumbed later to his wounds.

A day earlier, Israeli aircraft struck two targets belonging to the Hamas movement, although no casualties were reported.

More than 118 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since mass protests demanding the right of return began in late March.

Israel has been widely condemned for its killing of unarmed protesters. </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> JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinian officials say Israeli shelling has killed one person and wounded two others near the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra says the body of 18-year-old Yousef Abu Azra was recovered early Wednesday after shells landed near the border fence separating Gaza and Israel. He said two others sustained shrapnel injuries.

The Israeli military says its forces fired on three suspected militants who had approached the security fence.

A cease-fire has largely held since a 50-day war between Israel and Gaza militants in the summer of 2014. But militants in Gaza occasionally fire rockets at Israel's south, and Israel has warned that they are trying to rebuild a network of offensive tunnels into Israel that was largely damaged in the war. </s> Israeli tank fire at an Islamic Jihad observation post killed two militants from the group in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian officials said.

 The Gazan health ministry identified those killed as Hussein al-Amour, 25, and Abdul Haleem al-Naqa, 28. The incident happened east of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, a ministry spokesman said.

 A statement from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades, claimed the two as members.

 Islamic Jihad is the second-most powerful armed group in the Gaza Strip, after Hamas, which runs the Palestinian enclave. Israel´s military said in a statement that the tank fire came after soldiers detonated an explosive device that had been placed near the border fence, targeting its troops.

 It said the explosive device had been hidden inside a pair of fence cutters.

 Separately on Saturday night, Israeli aircraft struck two targets belonging to Hamas, but there were no reports of casualties.

 The military said the operation was in response to a brief incursion across the border earlier in the day by Palestinians who immediately fled back into Gaza.

 It added that the strike was also in retaliation for repeated Palestinian attempts to damage the border fence and “security infrastructure” during ongoing border protests.

 At least 118 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip since mass protests and clashes broke out on March 30, according to figures from the Gazan health ministry.

 No Israelis have been killed during that time.

 Low-level demonstrations along the border have continued since protests peaked on May 14, when at least 61 Palestinians died as tens of thousands of Gazans protested the US moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

 Israel says its actions are necessary to defend the border and stop mass incursions into its territory. —AFP </s> Bahaa Badr, 13, was shot in the chest as Israeli forces entered Beit Liqya near the dividing line with Israel and were pelted with stones by local youths, the sources said.

It is unclear whether the boy took part in the confrontation, which the Israeli army described as an "illegal riot" in which residents threw molotov cocktails at their forces as they were exiting the village.

A military spokesperson said soldiers responded with live fire and the army would investigate the reports of the killing.

Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since capturing them in the 1967 war. Palestinians want the territories, along with the Gaza Strip, for a future state.

Tensions in the occupied West Bank have risen since Israel's seven-week war in Gaza began in July and killed more than 2,000 Palestinians - mostly civilians - and more than 70 Israelis, almost all of them soldiers.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians mediated by the United States collapsed in April. </s> (JTA) – Two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in riots along the fence separating Gaza and Israel, Palestinian sources said.

An 11-year-old boy also was severely injured in the clashes Friday, Haaretz reported based on sources in the Gaza Strip.

A spokesman for the Israeli army told Haaretz that a military aircraft carried out a strike in the northern Gaza Strip after Palestinians hurled grenades and explosive charges at soldiers.

In August, the Israel Security Agency documented 129 terrorist incidents along the Gaza border, including 34 cases featuring firebombs, the agency said in its monthly report. That tally accounted for the majority of 206 incidents recorded in the West Bank and Israel proper. </s> Israeli soldiers shot dead four Palestinian militants on Saturday on the border to the Gaza Strip after one of the men attacked them with a hand grenade, the Israeli military said.

The military said on Twitter that the men were armed with assault rifles, anti-tank missiles and hand grenades.

There has been a recent escalation in clashes between militants from Gaza, ruled by the Islamist group Hamas, and the Israeli army, which is keeping the enclave under a blockade that Israel says is prompted by security concerns.

Last week, three soldiers were injured after a Palestinian who was seeking to avenge his brother's death at the hands of Israeli forces entered Israel from Gaza and opened fire. The man was killed in the ensuing gunbattle.

Earlier this week, a 19-year-old Israeli soldier and student was stabbed to death in a settlement in the West Bank. The suspect in that attack is still at large.

The violence comes ahead of Israeli general elections on September 17, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under pressure to show a firm hand in dealing with Palestinian militants.

Every evening, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> An 18-year-old Palestinian man was killed and two others were moderately wounded after the IDF opened fire toward them in the southern Gaza Strip.



The three were near the border fence between Rafah and Israel on Tuesday night and were hit by tank fire after attempting to cross the border, the IDF said.

It is not clear why they were approaching the fence, but according to initial reports, the three appeared to IDF soldiers to be in the act of planting bombs.Ashraf al-Qudra, the spokesman for the health ministry in Gaza, identified the 18-year-old as Yousef Abu Azra. He and the two wounded, no names given, were evacuated to the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip, in moderate and critical condition with shrapnel wounds over their bodies, according to the spokesman.The Palestinian Authority condemned the Israeli artillery fire on east Rafah, with government spokesman Tariq Rishmawi calling on the international community “to put an end to the continued and premeditated Israeli aggressions on our people in all places that they exist.”The IDF said it was investigating the incident.Two weeks ago, two bombs were neutralized in an off-limits area in the northern Gaza Strip. The charges were taken in for further examination. There were no casualties in the incident.Hamas has recently built military outposts every dozen meters along the border with Israel and also carries out regular patrols, to both impose its control on the Strip by preventing Palestinians from crossing into Israel and to watch what is happening on the Israeli side.The incident comes as the military finished its largest planned drill of the year, calling up some 2,000 reserve soldiers to simulate a war in Gaza. The surprise drill, which was carried out by the Southern Command’s reserve division, the Sinai Division, included four reserve brigades – two infantry and two armored brigades. The IDF’s Home Front Command also carried out a drill this past week in the South.Despite tension between Israel and the Gaza Strip running high, the IDF said that both drills were planned in advance.The last two months have seen gunfire targeting IDF troops along the border as well as seven rockets launched at Israel.Most of the attacks have been claimed by small jihadist groups, often as a means of pressuring Hamas by raising tensions between the terrorist organization and Israel.Hamas has cracked down on these small groups, recently carrying out a series of arrests among Salafi, jihadist, pro-Islamic State organizations. Nonetheless, Israel holds Hamas responsible for all fire coming from the Strip.

var cont = `Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>



`; document.getElementById("linkPremium").innerHTML = cont; (function (v, i){ }); </s> Israeli forces killed four Palestinian youths near Khan Younis, in the south of the besieged Gaza Strip, on Friday.

Three of the Palestinians were members of Hamas-run restraint force, which is responsible for preventing breaches of the eastern fence between Gaza and Israel. During the incident, the Israeli military drones targeted two posts belonging to the restraint forces.

Israeli forces opened fire at the Palestinians, killing all of them. There were no casualties among the Israeli soldiers.

Israeli daily Ynet News quoted sources from within the Strip who named the three youths as 21-year-old Abdullah Hamaida, 19-year-old Abdullah A-Ghari, and 20-year-old Ahmed Adini. The fourth youth has not yet been named.
An Israeli Army tank kills a Palestinian teenager and wounds two others near the Gaza border.