GAZA CITY: Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians and wounded at least 30 others taking part on Friday in weekly protests at the fortified Gaza Strip border, Palestinian medical officials said.
The Israeli military said it used force necessary to prevent border breaches by some 12,000 Palestinians who massed at several points near the fence, some of them hurling rocks and firebombs at troops under cover of smoke from burning tyres.
Friday's dead, one of them a boy whom medics said appeared to be around 14 years old, brought to 177 the number of Palestinians killed since the sometimes violent protests were launched on March 30 to press several demands against Israel.
The period has also seen occasional shelling exchanges between Hamas and Israel. An Israeli soldier was killed by a Gaza sniper and Israel has lost tracts of forest and farmland to cross-border incendiary attacks.
Israel's tactics against the protests have drawn foreign condemnation, though Washington has backed its ally in accusing Hamas of staging the mass-mobilisation to distract from Gaza's poverty and governance problems and to provide cover for armed Palestinian border incursions. Hamas has denied this.
The Israeli military said that, twice this week, its patrols discovered and dismantled bombs that had been planted for use against them at the fence. Early on Friday, several Palestinians crawled to the fence to throw a pipebomb at troops, who fired back, the military said. There was no word of casualties.
The protesters want rights to lands Palestinians lost during the 1948 war of Israel's foundation, as well as the easing of a crippling blockade that Israel, with the help of neighbouring Egypt, has placed on Gaza to isolate Hamas and deny it weaponry.
UN and Egyptian mediators have been trying to reach a deal to calm Gaza, where Israel and Hamas have fought three wars in the last decade. The brokering efforts have been complicated by Hamas's feuding with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has restricted funding to the coastal strip.
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Israeli troops kill 3 Palestinians in Gaza protests: medics
Israeli troops kill 3 Palestinians in Gaza protests: medics
Iran open to compromises to reach nuclear deal with US, minister tells BBC
- A US delegation, including envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will meet with the Iranians on Tuesday morning
LONDON: Iran is ready to consider compromises to reach a nuclear deal with the United States if Washington is willing to discuss lifting sanctions, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC in an interview published on Sunday.
Iran has said it is prepared to discuss curbs on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions, but has repeatedly ruled out linking the issue to other questions including missiles.
Takht-Ravanchi confirmed that a second round of nuclear talks would take place on Tuesday in Geneva, after Tehran and Washington resumed discussions in Oman earlier this month.
“(Initial talks went) more or less in a positive direction, but it is too early to judge,” Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC.
A US delegation, including envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will meet with the Iranians on Tuesday morning, a source had told Reuters on Friday, with Omani representatives mediating the US-Iran contacts.
Iran’s atomic chief said on Monday the country could agree to dilute its most highly enriched uranium in exchange for all financial sanctions being lifted. Takht-Ravanchi used this example in the BBC interview to highlight Iran’s flexibility.
The senior diplomat reiterated Tehran’s stance that it would not accept zero uranium enrichment, which had been a key impediment to reaching a deal last year, with the US viewing enrichment inside Iran as a pathway to nuclear weapons.
Iran denies seeking such nuclear weapons.
During his first term in office, Trump pulled the US out of a 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the signature foreign policy achievement of former Democratic President Barack Obama.
The deal eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program to prevent it from being able to make an atomic bomb.
Iran has said it is prepared to discuss curbs on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions, but has repeatedly ruled out linking the issue to other questions including missiles.
Takht-Ravanchi confirmed that a second round of nuclear talks would take place on Tuesday in Geneva, after Tehran and Washington resumed discussions in Oman earlier this month.
“(Initial talks went) more or less in a positive direction, but it is too early to judge,” Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC.
A US delegation, including envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will meet with the Iranians on Tuesday morning, a source had told Reuters on Friday, with Omani representatives mediating the US-Iran contacts.
Iran’s atomic chief said on Monday the country could agree to dilute its most highly enriched uranium in exchange for all financial sanctions being lifted. Takht-Ravanchi used this example in the BBC interview to highlight Iran’s flexibility.
The senior diplomat reiterated Tehran’s stance that it would not accept zero uranium enrichment, which had been a key impediment to reaching a deal last year, with the US viewing enrichment inside Iran as a pathway to nuclear weapons.
Iran denies seeking such nuclear weapons.
During his first term in office, Trump pulled the US out of a 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the signature foreign policy achievement of former Democratic President Barack Obama.
The deal eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program to prevent it from being able to make an atomic bomb.
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