IDF fires on suspects who approached Gaza fence

In unrelated incident, boat strays into waters banned to traffic as part of Gaza security blockade; navy fires warning shot.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Gaza Border 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Gaza Border 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
The IDF fired on Palestinian suspects who approached the Gaza-Israel border on Friday.
“We initiated the stop-suspect procedure, calling out for them to stop. Verbal warnings were ignored,” the IDF Spokesman’s Office said.
Shots were then fired at the suspects’ legs, and two men were believed to have been hit.
The incident occurred on the border between northern Gaza and Israel.
On Saturday, Palestinian sources said the injured man died of his injuries.
In an unrelated incident, a boat left the central Gazan coast shortly after midnight on Saturday morning and strayed into waters that are banned to traffic as part of the security blockade on the Gaza Strip.
An Israel Navy boat fired warning shots that struck the water near the Palestinian vessel, which was not hit and turned around without incident, the IDF Spokesman’s Office added.
Palestinian health officials, however, claimed Saturday that a fisherman was wounded by the IDF and later succumbed to his wounds.
The alleged victim was accompanied by his brother, who was also reportedly shot and sustained minor injuries, the Ma’an news agency reported.
Ma’an quoted Gaza officials as saying 22-year-old Fahmi Salah Abu Rayash was shot in his abdomen and his foot, and later died at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. Health officials originally said one of the brothers was shot in the foot, and the other in the hand, according to Ma’an.
A security source said that no one was injured in the boat incident, adding that Palestinian sources appeared to have conflated the two unrelated incidents.