Gaza death toll 22 ahead of demonstrations

The death toll in a week of Palestinian protests along the dividing fence between Israel and Gaza climbed to 22 on Friday as a man died from his injuries and authorities prepared for more casualties in demonstrations dubbed the "Friday of Tires".

Thaer Rabaa, 30, was injured a week earlier when Israeli forces used live ammunition and drones carrying teargas to hold back a crowd that had massed on the border for a six-week protest campaign "March of Return" to mark Land Day, an annual commemoration of a 1976 protest against Israeli confiscation of Arab-owned land, the New York Times reported.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said that 20 Palestinians were killed so far in the protests. It did not count the bodies of two men killed near the fence that Israel said it was holding in its toll.

The Israeli military said it had shot three people in the legs as protesters burned car tyres and threw stones on Friday. The protesters were demanding that refugees be allowed to return to ancestral lands that were now in Israel.

But Israel said the militant group Hamas, which dominates Gaza, was using the cover of the protests to try to cross illegally into its territory.

Israel's Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned that anyone getting close to the border fence in Gaza was endangering their life, the BBC reported.

"If there are provocations, there will be a reaction of the harshest kind like last week," he said.

The UN and EU called for an independent investigation into last week's deaths and appealed for calm on Friday. "Israeli forces should exercise maximum restraint and Palestinians should avoid friction at the Gaza fence," UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov said.

"Demonstrations and protests must be allowed to proceed in a peaceful manner," he added.

But US presidential envoy Jason Greenblatt said it was the responsibility of Palestinian leaders to "communicate loudly and clearly that protesters should march peacefully", remain outside the 500-metre "buffer zone" designated by Israel and "not approach the border fence in any way or any location".

--IANS

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