Israel struck Gaza on Saturday after clashes between its troops and Palestinian protesters on the border left dozens injured, including an Israeli policeman and a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who were both critically wounded.
The clashes, which saw crowds of young Palestinians hurling firebombs and trying to scale the Gaza border wall, with Israeli troops firing in return, came exactly three months since Israel and the enclave’s Hamas rulers reached a truce following their deadliest fighting in years.
The Hamas Islamist-run Gazan health ministry said the injured included a 13-year-old boy left in a critical condition after being hit in the head.
“Forty-one civilians were wounded with various injuries,” the ministry said in a statement, with Hamas saying “thousands” of protesters had taken part.
The Israeli army said that “hundreds of rioters” had tried to climb the Gaza Strip’s northern border fence, hurling “explosive devices”, with some trying to wrest a rifle off a soldier.
Volleys of tear gas were fired towards the protesters, who set fire to tyres.
The army said it had “responded with riot dispersal means, including when necessary live fire.”
“An Israeli Border Police soldier was critically injured by live fire emanating from Gaza, and is currently receiving medical treatment at a hospital,” the army added.
– Fragile ceasefire –
Israeli police commissioner Kobi Shabtai in a statement vowed the force would “continue to act firmly and with all our might against those who want to harm us.”
Defence Minister Benny Gantz, speaking on Israel’s Channel 13 TV news, said that “these are definitely extremely serious events that will have a response”.
Shortly after his comments, Israeli airstrikes hit three Hamas-linked targets — one outside Gaza city, one in southern Khan Yunis and another in the centre of the strip, a Palestinian security source told AFP.