At least 6,200 Arabs gathered at Gaza’s border with southern Israel on Friday to burn tires and throw hand grenades, Molotov cocktails and improvised explosive devices (IEDs, homemade bombs) at IDF soldiers stationed along the security fence.
“The demonstrations were of a particularly violent nature, which included throwing a large quantity of IEDs, grenades and Molotov cocktails being thrown at the security fence and at IDF forces.
“There is noticeable damage to the border fence in several locations and there has been a rise in the number of attempts to approach the border fence,” read a statement by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
The attackers gathered at five different points along the border.
“There were attempts at infiltration through the perimeter fence in the north and south of the Gaza Strip; those [who succeeded] immediately returned to Gaza. Two unarmed suspects who crossed the perimeter fence in the northern Gaza Strip into Israeli territory were arrested by IDF fighters and taken for interrogation,” the IDF added.
Two teen terrorists were shot and killed in the melee, allegedly by IDF soldiers, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. The claim could not be independently verified.
One of the two was identified as a 17-year-old, shot at a site in northern Gaza. The second, a 14-year-old teen, was shot in the stomach at a location east of Gaza City. According to the Hamas ministry, 48 others were injured by live bullets and 33 more were injured by rubber-coated bullets.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem railed in a tweet that Israel had deliberately targeted the rioters, and wrote “violating the blood of peaceful demonstrators . . . is a crime the occupation bears in all its repercussions.”