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Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager during protests along the Gaza border on Friday, Gaza medical officials said, and an Israeli soldier was wounded during the demonstrations that had turned violent, the military said.
More than 130 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Gaza frontier protests which have entered their fourth month and have drawn a lethal Israeli army response.
Thousands took part in Friday's protests, which marked 100 days since their launch, with some venturing close to the border fence, burning tyres and throwing stones.
Israel's military said Palestinian protesters hurled grenades, explosive devices and fire-bombs toward the Israeli troops across the border fence. One soldier was moderately wounded by a grenade, the army said in a statement.
Israeli air defenses successfully intercepted a drone launched from Syrian territory, the Israeli army claimed Wednesday.Before the alleged drone was shot down, air-raid sirens were reportedly sounded in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights region.In a statement, the army said that the drone -- which was reportedly downed by a Patriot missile -- had originated “from Syrian territory”.Notably, the alleged incident coincided with the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Moscow, where he is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.In earlier statements, Netanyahu had said that his meeting with Putin would focus on Syria and Iran’s military presence in that country.Israeli sirens sound over Golan frontier with Syria, Jordan: Israeli militaryIran Supreme Leader's aide, in Moscow, hails 'strategic' ties with RussiaHamas delegation heads from Gaza to Cairo for talks
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Israeli air defence sirens sounded on Wednesday on the Golan Heights frontier with Syria and the nearby Jordanian border, the Israeli military said.The military, which has been on high alert as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces advance against rebels near the Golan and Jordan, did not say what triggered the sirens. Israel's Channel 10 TV said Israel launched a Patriot interceptor missile, but it did not disclose the target.Israeli army detains 12 Palestinians in West Bank raidsIsrael releases seven passengers of Gaza flotilla
Israeli sirens sound over Golan frontier with Syria, Jordan: Israeli military
"Troops responded by firing towards the terrorists," the military said.
It said it fired toward a Palestinian who was attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory, but the incident appeared to be unrelated to the death of the teenager.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the 15-year-old boy killed was shot in the chest. It said 70 others were wounded, at least 20 by live fire, and others by tear gas.
There have been no Israeli fatalities during the so-called "Great March of Return" demonstrations but big tracts of Israeli land have been ravaged by fires set by blazing kites or helium balloons carrying burning rags and other objects floated over from Gaza.
Protest organisers say the demonstrations aim to press demands such as for a right to lands lost to Israel in the 1948 war of its foundation and for an Israeli-Egyptian blockade to ease.
Israeli naval forces on Tuesday intercepted a Palestinian humanitarian flotilla that attempted to break the years-long blockade of Gaza.According to Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee, the boat -- which had been carrying eight passengers -- was “stopped without incident”.After being searched, the vessel and passengers will be taken to Israel’s Port of Ashdod, Adraee said.Israeli navy intercepts humanitarian flotilla from GazaThe spokesman went on to defend what he described as Israel’s “naval cordon” on Gaza, calling it “necessary and legal… for maintaining Israel’s security and its maritime borders”.The flotilla set out from the Gaza coast earlier Tuesday in hopes of breaking Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.It was the second humanitarian flotilla to set out from Gaza since Palestinians first began holding rallies along the Gaza-Israel security fence on Mar. 30.Fresh Israeli sanctions on Gaza go into forceAn earlier flotilla, which set out from Gaza on May 29 carrying Palestinian medical patients and university students, was likewise intercepted.Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has groaned under a crippling Israeli blockade that has gutted its economy and deprived its roughly 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities.Since Mar. 30, more than 130 Palestinians have been martyred by Israeli army gunfire -- and thousands more injured -- while taking part in regular demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel security fence.Demonstrators demand an end to Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land and its ongoing blockade, which has brought the impoverished Gaza Strip to the verge of humanitarian catastrophe.
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Israel says Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, has been orchestrating the protests to distract from their governance problems and provide cover for militants' cross-border attacks. Hamas, which Israel and the United States designate as a terrorist organization, denies this.
Home to 2 million Palestinians, more than half of them war refugees and their descendants, Gaza has suffered deep poverty with vital infrastructure collapsing under a 12-year blockade by Israel, which says its aim is to curb security threats by Hamas.
Egypt keeps tight restrictions on its border crossing with Gaza.
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