Palestinian death toll rises to 52 killed by Israel after border shooting

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Israeli occupation forces killed three Palestinians on Sunday while they attempted to cross into Israel from the Gaza strip, Israel said.

Gaza’s health ministry identified two of the dead as Bahaa Rahman Qudeih, 23, and Mohammed Abu Rayda, 20. A name had not yet been provided for the third person.

Israel claimed that four people “attempted to infiltrate” by breaking through the security fence.

“Troops arrived at the scene and fired shots towards the terrorists, as a result of which three were killed,” an occupation army statement said, referring to the Palestinians.

The latest deaths raised to 52 the toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces since protests began along the Gaza border on March 30.

Demonstrators are demanding the right to return to their homes seized by Israel amid mass expulsions and dispossession during the creation of Israel in 1948.

No Israelis have been hurt in the weeks of protests and occupation forces have faced international criticism for their use of live ammunition. 

Israel also struck a facility of the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers overnight, the movement’s military wing said on Sunday, with Israel occupation forces claiming it was reacting to “kite-borne fire bombings”.

A military spokeswoman alleged it was a direct response to a new Palestinian tactic of flying kites with firebombs attached across the Gaza border into Israel to set farmers’ fields alight. 

“Last night an aircraft struck a terror post belonging to the Hamas terror organisation adjacent to the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip,” a spokeswoman told AFP, without describing the target.

Hamas’ Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades military wing said in a statement that it was a border observation post and that nobody was injured in the attack.

“The strike was in response to an incident that took place yesterday in which terrorists launched burning incendiaries in an attempt to light fires in Israeli territory,” the Israeli spokeswoman claimed.

Israeli media have in recent days alleged damage to farms due to kite-flown Molotov cocktails, though the devices face difficult odds in making it across the fence while staying alight.

The Israeli spokeswoman made a point of adding that the latest strike had no connection to a so-far unexplained explosion in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday which killed six Hamas fighters.

Ezzedine Al Qassam said the dead were all its members and blamed Israel for the explosion, without providing details.