Israel fires on protesting Palestinians in Gaza, 24 wounded

A wounded Palestinian is carried after taking part in a protest at Israel-Gaza border east of Gaza City, August 21, 2021. (Reuters)
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Updated 21 August 2021
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Israel fires on protesting Palestinians in Gaza, 24 wounded

  • Hamas called a protest Saturday to mark the burning 52 years ago of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque

GAZA: Israeli troops fired at Palestinian protesters who hurled firebombs and burned tires from behind the Gaza Strip’s border fence Saturday, with the Gaza health ministry reporting 24 injuries.
“Twenty-four civilians were injured, including 10 children,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Two of the injuries are critical, one of whom is a 13-year-old boy, who was hit in the head east of Gaza City.”




Tear gas shot by Israeli security forces from across the Gaza border fence billows as Palestinian protesters watch amid clashes following a demonstration east of Gaza City, denouncing the Israeli siege of the Palestinian territory. (AFP)


The Israeli army told AFP “hundreds of rioters and demonstrators” had gathered along the border fence.
“Troops are prepared in the area and are using riot dispersal means, and if necessary, .22 calibre rounds,” the army said.
The Hamas Islamic movement that rules Gaza had called a protest Saturday to mark the burning 52 years ago of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.
“Al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line, and any attack on it will be met with valiant resistance from our people,” the movement said in a statement.
The protest came exactly three months since Israel and Hamas reached a truce following their deadliest fighting in years.
Over 11 days in May, Israel pounded Gaza with airstrikes in response to rockets fired from the enclave.
Hamas said it took action after Israeli security forces stormed Al-Aqsa.
Reconstruction in Gaza has stalled since a May 21 cease-fire, in part because of a crippling blockade Israel has maintained on the enclave since Hamas seized power in 2007.
On Thursday, Israel announced it would allow funds from Qatar to reach impoverished Palestinians in Gaza. Other restrictions remain.
In 2018, Gazans began a protest movement demanding an end to Israel’s blockade and a right for Palestinians to return to lands they fled after the Jewish state was founded.
The Hamas-backed weekly demonstrations, often violent, sputtered as Israel killed some 350 Palestinians in Gaza over more than a year.


Palestinians attempt to use Gaza’s Rafah Border crossing amidst delays

Updated 08 February 2026
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Palestinians attempt to use Gaza’s Rafah Border crossing amidst delays

  • The Rafah Crossing opened to a few Palestinians in each direction last week, after Israel retrieved the body of the last hostage held in Gaza and several American officials visited Israel to press for the opening

CAIRO: Palestinians on both sides of the crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which opened last week for the first time since 2024, were making their way to the border on Sunday in hopes of crossing, one of the main requirements for the US-backed ceasefire. The opening comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Washington this week, though the major subject of discussion will be Iran, his office said.
The Rafah Crossing opened to a few Palestinians in each direction last week, after Israel retrieved the body of the last hostage held in Gaza and several American officials visited Israel to press for the opening. Over the first four days of the crossing’s opening, just 36 Palestinians requiring medical care were allowed to leave for Egypt, plus 62 companions, according to United Nations data.
Palestinian officials say nearly 20,000 people in Gaza are seeking to leave for medical care that they say is not available in the war-shattered territory. The few who have succeeded in crossing described delays and allegations of mistreatment by Israeli forces and other groups involved in the crossing, including and an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed group, Abu Shabab.
A group of Palestinian patients and wounded gathered Sunday morning in the courtyard of a Red Crescent hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, before making their way to the Rafah crossing with Egypt for treatment abroad, family members told The Associated Press.
Amjad Abu Jedian, who was injured in the war, was scheduled to leave Gaza for medical treatment on the first day of the crossing’s reopening, but only five patients were allowed to travel that day, his mother, Raja Abu Jedian, said. Abu Jedian was shot by an Israeli sniper while he was building traditional bathrooms in the central Bureij refugee camp in July 2024, she said.
On Saturday, his family received a call from the World Health Organization notifying them that he is included in the group that will travel on Sunday, she said.
“We want them to take care of the patients (during their evacuation),” she said. “We want the Israeli military not to burden them.”
The Israeli defense branch that oversees the operation of the crossing did not immediately confirm the opening.
A group of Palestinians also arrived Sunday morning at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing border to return to the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News satellite television reported.
Palestinians who returned to Gaza in the first few days of the crossing’s operation described hours of delays and invasive searches by Israeli authorities and an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed group, Abu Shabab. A European Union mission and Palestinian officials run the border crossing, and Israel has its screening facility some distance away.
The crossing was reopened on Feb. 2 as part of a fragile ceasefire deal that stopped the war between Israel and Hamas. Amid confusion around the reopening, the Rafah crossing was closed Friday and Saturday.
The Rafah crossing, an essential lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza, was the only crossing not controlled by Israel prior to the war. Israel seized the Palestinian side of Rafah in May 2024, though traffic through the crossing was heavily restricted even before that.
Restrictions negotiated by Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian and international officials meant that only 50 people would be allowed to return to Gaza each day and 50 medical patients — along with two companions for each — would be allowed to leave, but far fewer people than expected have crossed in both directions.