Israeli troops fired on Gazans surging toward Israel’s border fence yesterday, killing one man in the first major test of the fragile cease-fire with Hamas.
Nineteen people were wounded but the confrontation was defused after Hamas security pulled back Palestinians from the fence, witnesses said.
The showdown came in a 300-yard-wide “no-go” zone on the Gaza side of the border. Israel has barred Palestinians from the buffer zone since 2009 to avoid terrorist infiltration of southern Israel.
But yesterday, about 300 Palestinians, some throwing rocks, charged into the zone toward the border fence in an apparent attempt to challenge the Israeli ban.
Soldiers fired warning shots in the air, but after the Palestinians refused to retreat, the troops fired at their legs, the military said.
A 20-year-old man, Anwar Abdel Hadi Qdeih, was killed “trying to put a Hamas flag on the fence,” said Omar Qdeih, a witness who identified himself as a relative.
He said the guards fired three times in the air, then shot Anwar in the head when he shouted, “Jaabari is behind you.”
It was a reference to Ahmed al-Jabaari, the Hamas military chief Israel killed Nov. 14 in a strike that set off the border war.
But the tension subsided yesterday after Hamas security, coming closer to the border than ever before, escorted the protesters away in what was called a highly unusual move.
Hamas denounced the shooting as a violation of the truce that went into effect Wednesday. But Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, said the cease-fire would remain intact.
The truce agreement prohibited hostile acts by Israel and any of the Palestinian factions. But details about access at Gaza borders was one of several issues left vague in the agreement and was to be worked out later.
The fragile truce allowed both Hamas and Israel to step back from the brink of a prolonged war after eight days of fighting. Israel carried out 1,500 strikes on Hamas-linked targets, while Hamas fired nearly the same amount of rockets into the heart of the Jewish state.
Also yesterday, Israeli officials tried to avoid a confrontation at another flash-point by banning Palestinians under age 40 from Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
The mosque compound, which contains Islam’s third holiest site, has been the scene of clashes between young Muslims leaving Friday prayers and Israeli security.
“An extensive police force and border guards will also be deployed in sensitive areas around the Old City of Jerusalem,” an Israeli police spokeswoman said.