Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinians, including a teenager, in the Gaza Strip during the latest of weekly protests along the border with Israel yesterday, Palestinian health officials said.
About 8,000 Palestinians gathered near the border fence, the Israeli military said. Most kept their distance, while some burned tires and tried to throw an explosive device into Israel, though it did not land across the border, the military said.
A military spokeswoman said the troops responded with “riot dispersal means” and fired in accordance with Israeli procedure. Gaza’s health ministry said 16-year-old Mohamed al-Jahjuh was fatally shot in the neck, while 25 others, including a local journalist, were wounded by Israeli gunfire. It later said two men, aged 28 and 40, died of injuries they sustained at protests in two separate locations along the fence with Israel earlier in the day.
Health officials in Gaza, which is run by the Hamas movement, say more than 220 Palestinians have been killed since they began weekly border protests on March 30 to demand the easing of Israel’s blockade on the territory and the right to return to land lost in the 1948 war of Israel’s founding.
Israel has ruled out any such right, concerned that the country would lose its Jewish majority. Alarmed at the bloodshed, Egypt, the United Nations and some Gulf nations have sought ways to improve conditions in the enclave.
Israel withdrew settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005 but maintains tight control of its land, air and sea borders. The wider Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been stalled for several years. 
Earlier, Israel’s military said it had opened fire “according to operational procedures” in place, without elaborating.
Forty six Palestinians — including two journalists and four first aid responders — were wounded. Palestinians in the Gaza strip have held often violent protests backed by its rulers Hamas since March 30.
Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period, one by a Palestinian sniper and another during an aborted special forces operation inside Gaza.
PROBE OVER 
FATAL SHOOTING 
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it had opened a probe after troops shot dead the passenger of a car that tried to break through two checkpoints in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian health ministry said 17-year-old Qassem al-Abbasi, from east Jerusalem, was shot dead by Israeli troops on Thursday near the city of Ramallah.
“The military police have opened an investigation into the death of the passenger,” an army spokeswoman said, without giving any more details on the deceased.
Soldiers fired warning shots into the air after the vehicle failed to stop a roadblock, she said.
When the vehicle tried to break though a second roadblock nearby, soldiers again fired into the air “before aiming at the car, killing one of the occupants and injuring another passenger”, the 
spokeswoman said.


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