Palestinian teen dies of wounds from border confrontation — ministry

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — A Palestinian teen died of his wounds Saturday a day after he was shot by Israeli forces during confrontations on the Gaza border, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said.

Muadh Al Suri, 15, was shot in the stomach on Friday in central Gaza, ministry spokesman Ashraf Al Qudra said, raising the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire during those confrontations to two, with over 200 wounded.

According to the Israeli occupying forces, some 8,000 Gazans had gathered at different spots along the frontier Friday, attempting to sabotage the Israeli border fence.

Another Palestinian, 25-year-old Ahmed Yaghi, was killed by a sniper east of Gaza City on Friday. 

Yaghi and Suri were buried on Saturday.

At least 159 Palestinians have been killed in border demonstrations that began at the end of March, while one Israeli occupying forces member has been shot dead.

On Saturday, the Israeli occupying forces said aircraft had fired at “terrorist squads” launching “arson balloons” at Israel in two separate instances, from northern and southern Gaza.

Palestinian sources said drones were used by the occupying forces, but that no one was wounded.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Palestinian movement Hamas was to meet for a second consecutive day on Saturday amid speculation of a long-term truce between the Gaza Strip’s rulers and Israel.

They convened late Friday in Gaza, for the first meeting of its kind by Hamas’ political bureau, but no details of the talks have emerged, and Hamas officials did not reply to requests for information.

The meetings were expected to deal with UN and Egyptian proposals for a truce with Israel and lifting the blockade imposed on the Palestinian enclave, according to a senior Hamas source.

Israel had on Thursday reimposed a blockade on fuel supplies to the enclave in response to a resurgence of the flow of fire kites and balloons across the border.

With borders to both Egypt and Israel largely sealed in recent years, Gaza suffers from desperately high rates of poverty and unemployment.

Israel insists its blockade is necessary to isolate Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Critics say it amounts to collective punishment of the coastal territory’s 2 million residents.