Israeli forces launch strikes on Gaza as protests continue

The Israeli military has said its forces conducted strikes on Gaza, where protesters have clashed for days with troops along the separation fence.

The military gave no details on the strikes but media outlets affiliated with the Hamas movement that controls the enclave said on Friday that security outposts were hit.

Earlier, the Palestinian health ministry said 14 Palestinians had been wounded during confrontations in which dozens of youths hurled stones, primitive pipe bombs and burning tyres at security forces.

Palestinian activists have been protesting for the past week next to the fence separating Gaza and Israel.

Protests in response to Israeli provocations

For the first time in the current round of unrest, Palestinian protesters on Friday launched balloons into Israel, blackening large patches of vegetation on the other side of the border. Palestinian health officials said Israeli fire wounded 28 Palestinians during protests along the barrier.

Hamas says youths have organised the protests in response to Israeli provocations.

Palestinians in Gaza have launched balloons in the past to protest the blockade imposed on the territory since 2007. The balloons have caused fires and scorched Israeli farmland, prompting Israel on several occasions to use fighter jets to strike at Hamas.

The evening airstrikes struck three military posts belonging to Hamas, the army said. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and engaged in numerous smaller battles since 2007.

Tensions in occupied Jerusalem and West Bank

Palestinian protesters at the border fence on Friday said they were demonstrating against recent Jewish visits to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.

Earlier Friday, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian in the occupied northern West Bank, Palestinian authorities said. The Islamic Jihad group said the man was one of its fighters and identified him as 18-year-old Abdallah Abu Hasan.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Hasan was shot in the abdomen by Israeli forces early Friday morning in a Palestinian village north of the West Bank city of Jenin.

Palestinians say the raids entrench Israel's 56-year occupation over the West Bank. The raids, which have escalated over the past year and a half, also show little sign of slowing the fighting.

Some 190 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Israel says most of those killed have been militants, but youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.

At least 31 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis since the beginning of 2023.

Israel occupied the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war.