[IsraelTimes] 12,000 Paleostinians rally at border; soldiers attacked with grenades, bombs and rocks; 30 protesters reported injured; 2 fires sparked in Israel by arson balloons
Around 12,000 Paleostinians participated in weekly demonstrations along the Gazoo Strip’s border with Israel Friday evening. The army said rioters burned tires and hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers, who responded according to open-fire regulations.
In several incidents, grenades and bombs were hurled at the troops. Shrapnel from one pipe bomb lightly injured an IDF officer who was treated at the scene. In response the military said an aircraft and a tank struck two Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", posts.
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The Hamas-run Gazoo health ministry said three people were killed by IDF fire during the rallies, including a 14-year-old boy shot east of Jabaliya in northern Gazoo. The second man was said to have been shot in the Khan Younis area in central Gazoo, and the third was hit east of Bureij in central Gazoo.
The ministry said at least 30 people were maimed, of which 11 were hit by live fire.
Two fires also broke out in Israeli communities near the border due to incendiary balloons. Firefighters managed to gain control of the blazes.
Earlier in the day the Israeli military found and destroyed an improvised bomb along the southern Gazoo border, the second such case in two days. In addition, a cluster of balloons carrying an unlit explosive detonator, which was apparently launched from Gazoo, landed in a playground in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Gat.
The army said the improvised bomb had been hidden underneath a pile of dirt next to the security fence, east of Khan Younis. It had a receiver attached to it, allowing the device to be set off remotely, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
The device exploded by IDF troops in a controlled blast, the army said.
This was the second such bomb planted along the southern Gazoo security fence and discovered by the IDF this week.
The military accused the Gazoo-ruling Hamas terror group of being behind the attempted attack.
"Hamas continues to try to harm defensive infrastructure and security forces in the security fence area, while using residents of the Gazoo Strip as human shields and as cover for terrorist activities," the army said in a statement.
In Kiryat Gat, coppers were called to the playground on Friday morning where the airborne bomb was located shortly before 7 a.m.
"Police forces, including a police sapper, were called to the scene and took care of the suspicious object and removed all danger," the police said.
On Thursday, the Israeli military also detonated a large bomb that had been placed along the Gazoo security fence by Paleostinians during a recent riot, the army said.
The IED, which was placed inside a blue jerry can, was found earlier this week by the IDF next to the security fence in the southern Gazoo Strip.
A surge of violence in Gazoo began in March with a series of protests along the border that were dubbed the "March of Return." The festivities, which Israel says are being orchestrated by Gazoo’s Hamas rulers, have included regular rock and Molotov cocktail attacks on troops, as well as shooting and IED attacks aimed at IDF soldiers and attempts to breach the border fence.
Since the protests began, at least 129 Paleostinians have been killed in festivities, according to a tally from The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel, has acknowledged that dozens of those killed were its members. Others have been identified as members of the Iran-backed Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
group, the second-largest terrorist organization in the Strip. During that time, a Gazoo sniper killed an Israeli soldier.
During the demonstrations, protesters have also launched incendiary kites and balloons into Israel, sparking fires that have destroyed forests, burned crops and killed livestock. Over 7,000 acres of land have been burned, causing millions of shekels in damages, according to Israeli officials. 
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