After hostilities ensued at the Al-Aqsa protest in Gaza on Saturday, the 21st of August, Forty Palestinians were shot at and injured, crucially harming two of them, and just one Israeli soldier.
These injuries occurred during the protest, organized by the Hamas forces and other factions, for the torching of Jerusalem 52 years ago. According to the Gaza health ministry, “thousands” of protesters had taken part, and “Forty-one civilians were wounded with various injuries”, including a 13-year-old boy who was hit in the head and was in a grave condition.
The Israeli troops had opened fire at the protestors to disperse those gathered near the Gaza border wall, and one Palestinian had refuted by firing back through an opening while some young Palestinians threw explosives and tried to climb the barrier wall. Following the Palestinian protester’s shots, a single 21-year-old sniper was hurt in his undercover unit.
This encounter happened after a three months truce after one of the deadliest fightings between Hamas and the Israeli Armed Forces. It is one of the worst shows of violence after the truce in May when for 11 days Israel bombarded Gaza with airstrikes, and Hamas had tried to respond with rockets of their which were nothing to the Israeli Iron Dome Defense System.
Instead, in response to this protest, the Israeli government chose to strike Gaza, specifically Hamas sites and assigned more troops in the Gaza division. Statements by the Israeli police commissioner, Kobi Shabtai, who said that the force would “continue to act firmly and with all our might against those who want to harm us”. And Defence Minister, Benny Gantz, who stated that “these are definitely extremely serious events that will have a response” was followed with a tweet by the Israeli Air Force “fighter jets struck four weapons manufacturing and storage sites belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization”.
