Israeli aircraft strike Gaza after gunfire at violent border protest

TEL AVIV • Israeli aircraft have struck Hamas sites in Gaza, the military said, in an escalation of hostilities after earlier cross-border gunfire seriously injured an Israeli soldier and wounded 41 Palestinians, two critically.

The injuries came during a Gaza protest on Saturday organised by the enclave's Islamist rulers Hamas and other factions in support of Jerusalem, where Palestinian clashes with Israeli police helped spark an 11-day Israel-Hamas conflict in May.

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered near the strip's heavily fortified border, where some tried to scale the border fence and others threw explosives towards Israeli troops, the Israeli military said.

"IDF (Israeli military) troops responded with riot dispersal means including, when necessary, live fire," the military said.

Hamas had called the protest on Saturday to mark the burning 52 years ago of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site.

"Al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line, and any attack on it will be met with valiant resistance from our people," the movement said.

Late on Saturday, Hamas and other groups in Gaza issued a joint statement in which they "saluted the heroic youth" who clashed with Israeli forces.

Among the two Palestinians critically injured was a 13-year-old boy who was shot in the head, Gaza's Health Ministry said. It described most of the other injuries as moderate, including gun shots to limbs, backs and abdomens.

"Forty-one civilians were wounded with various injuries," the ministry said in a statement, with Hamas saying "thousands" of protesters had taken part.

The Israel Border Police said a 21-year-old sniper in its undercover unit was critically wounded when he was shot by a Palestinian protester. "His condition is critical and there is a risk to his life," it said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the Gaza gunfire.

Israeli police commissioner Kobi Shabtai vowed that the force would "continue to act firmly and with all our might against those who want to harm us".

Defence Minister Benny Gantz had warned that "these are definitely extremely serious events that will have a response".

In response to the soldier's shooting, Israeli "fighter jets have struck four weapons storage and manufacturing sites belonging to" Hamas, the military said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Bracing itself for more hostilities, the military said it had sent additional forces to the Gaza border.

Israeli media reported that the military had increased deployment of its Iron Dome anti-missile system.

The violence follows an Israeli announcement of a resumption of Qatari aid to Gaza, a move seen as bolstering a fragile Egyptian-mediated truce to the May fighting.

Just days before that announcement, Gaza militants launched a rocket towards Israel that was shot down by the Iron Dome, in the first such attack since the truce. Palestinians have also sporadically launched fire-laden balloons towards Israel since the fighting, drawing Israeli strikes on Hamas sites.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Saturday's air strikes showed Israel was "trying to cover up its failure and disappointment in front of the steadfastness of our people and their valiant resistance".

At least 250 Palestinians and 13 people in Israel were killed in the May conflict, in which Gaza militants fired rockets towards Israeli cities and Israel carried out air strikes across the coastal enclave.

Israel keeps Gaza under a blockade, tightly restricting movement out of the territory that is home to two million Palestinians.

Egypt also has restrictions on the enclave. Both cite threats from Hamas for the restrictions.

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.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS