Some 11,000 Palestinians gathered near the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel Friday afternoon for weekly riots and protests against Israel, burning tires, throwing stones, explosive devices and trying to breach the fence.
An Israeli border police officer from an undercover unit was lightly wounded by shrapnel in the leg when a pipe bomb exploded next to his team, police said. He was evacuated to the hospital for treatment.
The army said 11,000 people took part in the protests and that some rioting was taking place, with demonstrators attempting to sabotage the border fence. Troops were responding with tear gas and occasional live fire to push protesters away from the barrier, it said.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said two Palestinians had been injured by live fire.
Meanwhile in the West Bank, the Ynet news site reported that a Palestinian was seriously wounded by Israeli fire during a riot in a village near Nablus.
The riot began after villagers in Urief held a protest prayer session in the eastern part of the village, to challenge the army’s recent move to block a path leading to residents’ agricultural lands. It was not immediately clear why the path had been sealed off.
Last Friday three people died and 17 were wounded during protests at the Gaza border. At the time, the Israeli army said some 8,200 rioters and demonstrators had gathered along the border to throw stones and a number of explosive devices towards troops.
An Israeli Military Intelligence assessment released Wednesday warned that Hamas, the terror group that controls Gaza, may seek to spark a war with Israel in the near future in an attempt to elicit international sympathy and an influx of international aid money to the Gaza Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces believes Hamas or the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second largest terror group in Gaza, could attempt to draw Israel into a war by conducting an attack along the border — an anti-tank missile strike, an ambush from an as-yet-undiscovered tunnel or a similar low-level but significant attack.
The army conducted a massive drill over the last week which was designed to train soldiers for combat operations in topographical conditions similar to those in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces said Friday.
The exercise was the largest one carried out by the 401st Brigade of the Armored Corps in recent years, according to Channel 12 news. The soldiers carried out drills in coordination with the Israeli Air Force, as well as the engineering and intelligence corps.
Dozens of tanks, armored personnel carriers and helicopters were deployed in the training zone in the Jordan Valley, the IDF said.
The brigade’s commander, Col. Dudu Sonago, said that Lebanese Hezbollah fighters have gained extensive experience and have developed more sophisticated battle techniques after fighting in neighboring Syria’s civil war, at the same time as deepening entrenchment above and below ground in Syria.
“As the situation in Syria stabilizes, Hezbollah is returning its forces to Lebanon,” Sonago said. “They are no longer a guerrilla organization, but a real army. They fought there in regiments of companies and battalions, very similar to the military,” he told Channel 12.
“They operate in civilian areas and are ready with a large quantity of anti-tank missiles,” Sonago added. “This is a challenge the IDF must train for.”
The exercise comes as tensions between Israel and Lebanon have heightened in recent months after the Israeli military launched an operation to locate and destroy Hezbollah cross-border attack tunnels reaching into the country.
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