Three boys aged 12 to 14 are killed by Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip ‘after tampering with a security fence and planting an explosive device near it’
- The three teenage boys were reportedly killed by an aircraft in southeast Gaza
- Israeli army claimed boys approached security fence and put an explosive on it
- The bodies of the boys, aged 12 to 14, were brought to a hospital from the fence
Palestinian medics say that three teenage boys have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southeastern Gaza Strip.
Ashraf al-Kidra of the Health Ministry says ambulance crews are bringing the bodies of the boys, aged 12 to 14, to a hospital from the perimeter fence dividing Gaza and Israel.
The Israeli army said an aircraft hit three Palestinians who approached the security fence Sunday ‘and were apparently involved in placing’ an explosive device to it.
Three Palestinian boys, aged 12-14, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip. Pictured is an Israeli tank as it takes position at the Gaza Strip border yesterday
The Gaza-Israel border area has been volatile for months as the enclave’s Hamas rulers organize weekly protests there against a decade-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
On Wednesday this week, Israel’s air force struck a position in the Gaza Strip used to launch incendiary balloons into Israeli territory.
Palestinians have for months been launching kites and balloons, equipped with rudimentary incendiary devices, towards Israeli farmland.
Hundreds of fires have resulted, destroying large areas of Israeli crops and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage.
The Israeli army claim that the boys approached a perimeter fence and placed an explosive device on it
That has coincided with mass demonstrations since late March, labelled the ‘Great March of Return’, calling for Palestinian refugees to return to their former homes inside what is now Israel.
More than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, many of them to Gaza.
Egyptian mediators relentlessly urge the two sides separately to restore calm and prevent wider conflict.
More than 160 Palestinians were killed in the protests since March.
A Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier in July.