Two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in clashes

GAZA CITY: Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in renewed clashes along the Gaza border Friday, the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave said.

Ali al-Ashqar, 17, was shot in the neck by Israeli fire along the border fence east of Jabalia in northern Gaza, a health ministry spokesman told AFP. A second man, who the health ministry did not immediately identify, was shot in the stomach east of Gaza City, the spokesman said.

The Israeli army did not comment on the deaths, but said an estimated 6,200 “rioters and demonstrators” had gathered in locations along the border and thrown “fire bombs and explosive devices” at troops, as well as approaching the fence.

Palestinians have been holding often violent weekly protests along the border fence since March 2018. The protesters are calling for Israel to end its crippling siege on the coastal

enclave as well as demanding the right to return to the lands their families fled in 1948, which are now inside Israel.

Israel says any such return would mean its end as a Jewish state and accuses Gaza´s Islamist rulers Hamas of using the protests as cover for attacks. At least 308 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since the protests began, the majority during the demonstrations. Seven Israelis have been killed.

The protests have calmed in recent months. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008.Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Friday the United States will present its long-awaited Middle East peace plan within weeks as he acknowledged a difficult task.

President Donald Trump´s administration pushed back the plan after Israel unexpectedly headed back to new elections to be held September 17 and fresh questions arose Thursday when Jason Greenblatt, Trump´s adviser on the Middle East, resigned.

But Pompeo, responding to a question at Kansas State University, dismissed speculation of a substantial new delay. “We´ve been consulting broadly throughout the region for two and a half years now and I think in the coming weeks we´ll announce our vision,” Pompeo said.

“And hopefully the world... will see that as a building block, a basis on which to move forward,” he said.He called Middle East peace “a difficult problem, one that ultimately those two peoples will have to resolve for themselves, but we´ve worked hard on that.

The Palestinian Authority has cut off formal contact with the Trump administration, saying it is not an honest broker after taking a series of unabashedly pro-Israel decisions such as recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.

The administration has started to describe its upcoming proposal as a “vision” rather than a plan, leading observers to wonder if Washington will offer more of a statement of principles rather than seek to broker a major agreement.

Trump´s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner launched the administration´s peace initiative in June with a conference in Bahrain in which he dangled $50 billion in investment for the region if the Palestinians agree on a political deal.

The Palestinian leadership boycotted the conference, accusing the administration of ignoring key political issues and trying to buy its acceptance of Israeli rule. Kushner has repeatedly said that a political component of the peace plan was in the pipeline. Greenblatt cited personal reasons in leaving, with the father of six saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.