GAZA BORDER: Israeli troops fired live rounds and tear gas at Palestinians who thronged the Gaza-Israel frontier and rampaged at a border terminal on Friday as part of a long-running protest, injuring about 1,100 people.
Medics said around 82 people were shot and wounded with live fire, another 800 treated for gas inhalation and the rest for other injuries along the Gaza side of the 25-mile border fence, where Palestinians set up tent encampments on March 30 for what they call "The Great March of Return".
Youths rolled burning tyres to within 300 metres (yards) of the fence, trying to use the smoke as cover for throwing stones across it while eluding Israeli snipers.
Army gunfire has killed at least 43 Palestinians on the frontier over the last month. Protesters said they used slingshots to down two small Israeli observation drones. The army confirmed the drone losses.
Hundreds of Palestinians entered Kerem Shalom, an industrial crossing point on the border. One of them said over social media that they had "torched rooms used by the Occupation (Israel). "The Israeli army issued footage showing fires at Kerem Shalom, but said the damage was limited to the Palestinian side.
"The rioters are damaging the pipes that carry fuel and gas from Israel into the Gaza Strip," the army said in a statement.
Facing international censure over its use of live fire in the protests, the Israeli army says it is protecting its border and takes such action only when protesters, some hurling firebombs and trying to plant explosives, approach too closely.
On Friday, troops faced "10,000 Palestinians participating in riots in six locations along the Gaza Strip border," it said.
As Israel celebrates its 70th birthday, Palestinians mourn what they call the "Nakba" (Catastrophe) of their people´s mass dispossession during the conflict that broke out in
1948. Two-thirds of the two million Palestinians in Gaza are war refugees or their descendants.
