GAZA: Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated near the Israeli border, calling on Israel to ease a crippling blockade, days after deadly clashes-Wednesday.
The last week’s demonstrations ended in intense clashes. An Israeli soldier was critically wounded when a Palestinian militant shot him in the head through a hole in the wall at point-blank range, while over 40.
Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire. One of the wounded, Osama Dueji, died of his wounds on Wednesday. Gaza’s ruling Hamas’s militant group identified him as a member of its armed wing.
This week’s protests ended without a repeat of last weekend’s intense clashes after Hamas kept the crowds from approaching the separation wall.
The Israeli military, which had beefed up its forces ahead of the demonstration, said it had used tear gas and limited live fire to disperse the crowd. Palestinian medics reported at least nine wounded, though details of their injuries weren’t immediately known.
Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV showed crowds of people approaching the fence, then running away when an Israeli military vehicle arrived. Tear gas could be seen floating in the wind. The military said it was using .22 caliber gunfire, a type of weapon that is meant to be less lethal than more powerful firearms but can still be deadly. During a demonstration, hundreds of participants stormed the fence, resulting in violent clashes.
Israeli leader meets Biden
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s meeting with President Joe Biden comes during heightened tensions with its regional archenemy, Iran, and as Israel grapples with a gradual resurgence of hostilities on its southern border with the Gaza Strip.
Bennett, in his first state visit overseas since taking office, was scheduled to meet Wednesday with senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and on Thursday with Biden.
In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office before his departure, Bennett said the top priority in his conversation with Biden would be Iran, especially the leapfrogging in the past two to three years in the Iranian nuclear program. He said other issues would also be discussed, including the Israeli military’s qualitative edge, the coronavirus pandemic, and economic matters.
Bennett has spoken out against the possibility of a new nuclear accord between Iran and world powers and says that any agreement must also put the brakes on Iran’s regional aggression. Recent months have seen a string of attacks on Israeli-connected shipping, believed to have been carried out by Iran.
Earlier this week, Bennett told his Cabinet that he would tell the American president that now is the time to halt the Iranians, to stop this thing and not re-enter a nuclear deal that has already expired and is not relevant, even to those who thought it was once relevant.” Friction between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers has been building in the three months since an 11-day war with Islamist militant group left least 265 dead in Gaza and 13 in Israel.
Indirect negotiations between the two sides to reach an arrangement for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip have broken down in the past week. Hamas has launched incendiary balloons into southern Israel and staged violent demonstrations on the border, raising the specter of renewed violence.
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