A PALESTINIAN farmer has been killed by an Israeli tank shell in the Gaza Strip, hours before Palestinians were to stage mass sit-ins along the border with Israel, a health official said.
Ahead of the protests, called for by Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers, Israel’s military said it doubled its standard troop level along the border.
Hamas has said the activities would be peaceful and the chief Israeli military spokesman, Brig Gen Ronen Manelis, said Israel wants to avoid violence. However, previous protests near the border fence have turned deadly.
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Manelis said the military will not allow the crowds to breach the fence or damage military infrastructure.
In today's incident, along with the killed Gazan, another Palestinian man was wounded. The Israeli military said troops directed tank fire towards two suspects who approached the fence along the southern Gaza Strip and acted suspiciously.
The sit-ins are seen as a new attempt by Hamas to break a crippling, decade-old Gaza border blockade by Israel and Egypt that has made it increasingly difficult for the Islamic militant group to govern.
Other tactics have included cross-border wars with Israel and attempts to reconcile with political rival Mahmoud Abbas, the West Bank-based Palestinian president, have failed to end Gaza’s isolation.
In the planned protest, Palestinians are setting up tent camps along the border, the first of a series of actions planned in Gaza in the coming weeks. The activities are to culminate on May 15, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s creation, with a march through the border fence.
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Palestinians commemorate the date as the anniversary of their mass displacement during the 1948 war. The vast majority of Gaza residents are descendants of Palestinians who were driven from communities in what is now Israel.
The killed farmer has been identified as 27-year-old Amr Samour. The Palestinian Health Ministry said he was killed in the south-eastern corner of Gaza.
Yasser Samour, a relative and fellow farmer, said Samour was harvesting parsley before dawn, in hopes of selling it fresh in the market later in the day.
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