(21 Aug 2021) Israeli gunfire on Saturday wounded 24 Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy who was shot in the head, health officials said, as Gazan protesters threw stones and burned tires during a demonstration along the border with Israel.
In a statement, the Israeli army said troops responded with live rounds after hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated at the Gaza-Israeli border.
The militant Hamas group say the protest commemorates the annual anniversary of the 1969 arson attack that severely destroyed part of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, but it comes amid a growing tension between Israel and Hamas, which has been struggling to secure easing of Israeli economic restrictions on the Palestinian enclave.
The demonstration grew violent after dozens of participants approached the fortified border fence and threw rocks toward Israeli soldiers from behind a black smoke screen spewing from burning tires.
Israeli troops fired live rounds and tear gas toward the protesters.
The violent confrontations at the fence are reminiscent of weekly protests Hamas had launched in March 2018 for a year and a half, in which over 350 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire.
After the most recent war between Israel and Hamas this spring, the new Israeli government, headed by Naftali Bennet, has blocked the Qatari aid, calling for a mechanism to ensure Hamas does not benefit from the cash.
Running out of patience, Hamas has called for a protest near the fence to signal its frustration with Israel delaying the Qatari cash injections.
On Thursday, however, Israel announced it reached an agreement with Qatar for the Gulf Arab country to resume aid payments to thousands of families in the Gaza Strip step aimed at easing tensions with the Palestinian territory in the wake of the 11-day war in May.
Hamas made the call for the protest at Gaza-Israel frontier before the new agreement on the resumption of Qatari aid was reached.
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