Israeli troops at the Gaza border shot dead a Palestinian man and wounded 15 more yesterday, health officials said, in the first fatality since a ceasefire between the territory's Islamist rulers Hamas and Israel.
A Hamas spokesman accused Israel of violating the Egyptian-mediated truce, which took hold on Wednesday, and said the group would complain to Cairo.
Health officials said Anwar Qdeih, 23, was hit in the head by Israeli gunfire after he approached the security fence that runs between Israel and Gaza – an area that Israel has long declared a no-go zone for Palestinians.
"Anwar was trying to put a Hamas flag on the fence," said Omar Qdeih, a relative who was at the scene.
"The army fired three times into the air. Anwar shouted at them 'Jaabari is behind you', then they shot him in the head," he said.
Israel killed Ahmed al Jaabari, the acting military chief of Hamas' armed wing, on November 14, and launched an offensive in Gaza that aimed to halt Palestinian rocket fire into its territory. In the following eight days of fierce fighting, 163 Palestinians and six Israelis died.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said soldiers fired warning shots into the air to push back some 300 Palestinians who had gathered at different locations along the fence and who were attempting to breach the border.
"After the rioters did not comply, the soldiers responded by firing toward the legs of the rioters," she said.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: "We will contact the Egyptian mediator to discuss the incident."
According to the terms of the ceasefire, both Israelis and Palestinians agreed to stop their hostilities. However, the brief document said details on access to the tense border zone would be worked out in the days ahead.
Sixteen Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli gunfire from the border since the start of the ceasefire, health officials said. Fifteen were hurt yesterday and one on Thursday, when the Israeli military said 200 Palestinian "rioters" approached the fence.
Israel's army constantly patrols the border area and says its forces have come under increasing attack this year, with militants planting explosive devices and firing an anti-tank missile on at least one occasion.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article