Nine Palestinians Injured in Clashes with IOF Near Gaza Fence

By Staff, Agencies

At least nine Palestinians have been injured in clashes with “Israeli” Occupation Forces [IOF] along the fence that separates the besieged Gaza Strip from the occupied territories.

The violence broke out in the area of Malka, east of Gaza City, on Friday afternoon after the IOF troops opened fire at dozens of Palestinian youth who staged a peaceful rally in protest at the regime’s continued crimes against Palestinians and their holy sites.

Palestine's Safa News Agency cited the Health Ministry in Gaza as saying that nine people sustained injuries “of various kinds,” and were transported to Shifa Hospital.

The agency added that some of the Palestinians suffered from suffocation due to inhaling tear gas fired by the regime forces near the separating fence.

Palestinian Shehab news agency confirmed the confrontation between the IOF and the Palestinians along the Gaza border, stressing that the troops “fired massively” at demonstrators using bullets and gas canisters.

Shehab also said a number of young Palestinians managed to cross the fence.

Palestinians usually stage demonstrations in the Gaza Strip after Friday prayers to protest against provocative incursions by “Israeli” groups into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied al-Quds [Jerusalem].

The regime brought the entire enclave under land, aerial and naval blockade in June 2007.

The “Israeli” entity’s crippling siege of Gaza has turned the enclave into the world's largest open-air prison and left many of its people destitute.

As a result of the siege, unemployment levels in Gaza are among the highest in the world, and as many as 1.3 million out of the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza [62 percent] require food assistance as well, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA].