GAZA CITY/WASHI­NG­TON: Hundreds of Palest­inians on Wednesday demonstrated near the Israeli border in the southern Gaza Strip, calling on Israel to ease a crippling blockade days after a similar gathering ended in deadly clashes with the Israeli army.

The demonstration wrap­ped up on Wednesday evening without a repeat of last weekend’s intense clashes after Hamas kept the crowds from approaching the separation wall.

The Israeli military, which had beefed up its forces ahead of the demonstration, said it had used tear gas and limited live fire to disperse the crowd. Palestinian medics reported at least nine wounded, though details of their injuries weren’t immediately known.

Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV sho­wed crowds of people approa­ching the fence, then runni­ng away when an Israeli military vehicle arrived. Tear gas could be seen floating in the wind. The military said it was using .22 caliber gunfire, a type of weapon that is meant to be less lethal than more powerful firearms but can still be deadly. During a demonstration, hundreds of participants stormed the fence, resulting in violent clashes.

An Israeli soldier was critically wounded when a Palestinian militant shot him in the head through a hole in the wall at point-blank range, while over 40 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire. One of the wounded, Osama Dueji, died of his wounds on Wednesday. Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group identified him as a member of its armed wing.

Israeli leader meets Biden

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s meeting with President Joe Biden comes in the midst of heightened tensions with its regional arch-enemy, Iran, and as Israel grapples with a gradual resurgence of hostilities on its southern border with the Gaza Strip.

Bennett, in his first state visit overseas since taking office, was scheduled to meet Wednesday with senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, and on Thursday with Biden.

In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office before his departure, Benn­ett said the top priority in his conversation with Biden would be Iran, especially the leapfrogging in the past two to three years in the Iranian nuclear programme. He said other issues would also be discussed, including the Israeli military’s qualitative edge, the coronavirus pandemic and economic matters.

Bennett has spoken out against the possibility of a new nuclear accord between Iran and world powers, and says that any agreement must also put the brakes on Iran’s regional aggression. Recent months have seen a string of attacks on Israeli-connected shipping, believed to have been carried out by Iran.

Earlier this week, Bennett told his Cabinet that he would tell the American president that now is the time to halt the Iranians, to stop this thing and not re-enter a nuclear deal that has already expired and is not relevant, even to those who thought it was once relevant.” Friction between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers has been building in the three months since an 11-day war with Islamist militant group left least 265 dead in Gaza and 13 in Israel.

Indirect negotiations betw­een the two sides to reach an arrangement for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip have broken down in the past week. Hamas has launched incendiary balloons into sou­t­­hern Israel and staged violent demonstrations on the border, raising the specter of renewed violence.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2021