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Dozens injured in clashes at the Gaza border

July 3, 2017 at 3:48 pm

Medics tend to a Palestinian protester after he was wounded by Israeli security forces in Gaza City, Gaza on 2 July 2018 [Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency]

Clashes erupted between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers along the border of the besieged Gaza Strip yesterday afternoon, leaving dozens injured.

A number of Palestinians, including two paramedics, suffered from tear gas inhalation and had to be treated in hospital. Witnesses told the Palestinian news agency Ma’an that tear gas canisters were also fired “directly” towards ambulances that had arrived to help the injured.

Read: Warnings from international organisations are failing Gaza

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the incident, commenting that “violent riots” had erupted in northern and central Gaza and that the Israeli army had employed “crowd control means”, but that live ammunition had not been used.

Despite this, IMEMC reported that shots had been fired in Gaza City, injuring a Palestinian man who was subsequently rushed to Shifa hospital. The soldiers were also reported to have fired live rounds and gas bombs at many Palestinians near the fence in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, in addition to Khan Yunis and Rafah in the southern part of the coastal region.