GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: A Palestinian threw grenades at Israeli soldiers while attempting to cross the Gaza border overnight and was shot by Israeli forces, the army and the Gaza health ministry said Friday.
The Palestinian was wounded and taken to hospital, the ministry said.
It was the latest in a series of violent incidents along the Gaza border in the run-up to a September 17 Israeli general election.
The army said the Palestinian attempted to cross the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip and distributed a video it said showed the man throwing grenades at soldiers.
“The troops charged toward the terrorist, crossing the security fence and striking him,” an army statement said, without providing further details.
The Gaza health ministry said he was shot by Israeli soldiers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely seen as wanting to avoid an escalation in Gaza ahead of next month’s election.
Speculation has grown that militants in the blockaded enclave are hoping to pressure him into further concessions under a truce deal.
Hamas leaders have warned Israel must fulfil commitments they say it made under an informal truce brokered by UN and Egyptian officials in November and then confirmed in May to ease its blockade of the Palestinian territory.
Gaza militants have launched six missiles at Israel in the past week, the most recent on Wednesday.
In retaliation, the army said it struck “a number of military targets in a Hamas naval facility in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008.
Israel shoots grenade-throwing Gazan on border
Israel shoots grenade-throwing Gazan on border
- The army said the Palestinian attempted to cross the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely seen as wanting to avoid an escalation in Gaza ahead of next month’s election
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
