A week of deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians spread to the Gaza Strip on Friday, with Israeli troops killing six Palestinians in clashes on the border and Hamas, which controls the besieged territory, calling for more unrest.
A fresh wave of stabbings also hit Israel and the West Bank, including an attack by a Jewish suspect that wounded four Palestinians in the southern Israeli city of Dimona.
Three other stabbing attacks, allegedly by Palestinians, also took place across Israel and the occupied West Bank on Friday.
In the latest developments, a rocket fired from Gaza hit southern Israel early on Saturday, causing no damage or injuries.
Also on Saturday morning, a Palestinian was shot dead by the Israel army at the Shuafat checkpoint in occupied East Beit-ul-Moqaddas.
The six Palestinians were shot dead and dozens more injured by Israeli forces as hundreds of them demonstrated along the border in the eastern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army claimed there had been “multiple violent attempts to storm the border fence” and “a 1,000 rioters infiltrated the buffer zone”, throwing a “grenade, rocks and rolled burning tyres” at the soldiers”.
Saeb Erakat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government of “committing a new massacre of Palestinians” in Gaza.
In Washington, the US State Department said it regards the stabbings and shootings of Israelis by Palestinians as “acts of terror”, though spokesman John Kirby would not be drawn on whether the attack by the Israeli teenager was also terrorism.
