Israeli forces shot and injured a Palestinian with live fire during clashes near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Friday.
According to local sources, soldiers at the military outpost of Nahal Oz, east of Gaza city, opened fire and teargassed a group of angry young men who approached the Israeli security fence chanting slogans against the occupation.
Medical sources in the besieged coastal enclave said that a Palestinian was injured during the clashes, which were taking place along the “buffer zone” east of Gaza City in the central Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces also reportedly opened fire at protesters east of al-Bureij refugee camp, also near the buffer zone, in northern Gaza. No injuries were reported.
An Israeli army spokesperson said they were looking into reports.
One young man was wounded in his leg and rushed to al-Shifa hospital. Others suffered from inhaling tear gas.
Other group of young protesters rallied in a border area east of al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, provoking soldiers into firing live bullets and tear gas canisters from their military watchtowers at them.
No one suffered gunshot injuries. Only several protesters were given on-site medical assistance after they inhaled tear gas.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have demonstrated near the border with Israel nearly every Friday to show solidarity with what Palestinians in Gaza have termed the “Jerusalem Intifada” taking place in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
29 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since the unrest spread in October, the majority shot dead during clashes on the Gaza-Israel border.
More than 177 Gazans have been injured by Israeli forces since the start of 2016, the vast majority during clashes that broke out with the Israeli military during protests since October, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The nearly nine-year Israeli blockade has plunged the Gaza Strip’s more than 1.8 million Palestinians into poverty. The destruction from three Israeli offensives over the past six years and slow reconstruction due to the blockade led the UN in September to warn that Gaza could be “uninhabitable” by 2020.
