Israeli forces attack Palestinian protesters in besieged Gaza Strip; injure 30 people

Israeli forces have attacked Palestinian protesters in the besieged Gaza Strip, injuring more than 30 people.

The protesters gathered near the fence separating Gaza from the occupied territories on Friday. The Israeli military said its forces have conducted air attacks on the Gaza Strip. 

The demonstrators expressed support for the al-Aqsa mosque and the occupied West Bank, amid rising acts of violence committed by Israeli forces and settlers against Palestinians there.

They also voiced solidarity with Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Israeli forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse the protesters.

In response, the protesters launched incendiary balloons toward Israeli settlements near Gaza, causing fires.

Israeli forces then launched aerial and artillery attacks on resistance positions in eastern Gaza, injuring at least one Palestinian. 

The Israeli military said a drone hit two military posts belonging to the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.

Separately, an Israeli tank hit another military post, claiming that shots were fired from there towards Israeli troops confronting protesters.

The Hamas-affiliated radio station Aqsa said several people had been wounded in the strikes.

Palestinians in Gaza have been holding protests along the separation fence for days over the regime’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners and provocative visits by settlers to the Al Aqsa mosque compound.

On Friday, the health ministry in Gaza said more than 30 Palestinian protesters had been wounded by Israeli troops, which came days after a protester was shot dead by troops.

Hamas has reacted to the Israeli attack, with its spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanoua saying the assaults are a continuation of the Israeli aggression.

“It comes in the context of continuous and extended Zionist aggression against all our people in an attempt to break his will and defeat his will.

The spokesman stressed that the Palestinian people have the right to express their anger and engage in resistance in all its forms and use all the tools at their disposal against the Israeli occupation.

Israel’s violence against Palestinians has escalated in recent months under what is seen as the most right-wing Israeli Cabinet.

Palestinian killed in Israeli military raid in northern occupied West Bank

A Palestinian youth has died after being shot by Israeli military forces during a raid in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian medical sources say.

More than 200 Palestinians have been killed this year in the occupied Palestinian territories and Gaza.

Those figures indicate that 2023 is already the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the United Nations began keeping track of fatalities in 2005.

Previously, 2022 had been the deadliest year with 150 Palestinians killed, of whom 33 were minors, according to the United Nations.

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