Israel Kills Two Palestinians, Wounds Hundreds at Gaza Protest

by Jason Ditz       
Reports of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip continued into Friday, though they were somewhat clouded by Israeli snipers shooting hundreds of civilians at the weekly border protest. It’s not clear that’s considered independent of the ceasefire, but it may well be given Israel has been treating protests this way for months.
At least two Palestinians were killed in the incidents. One a 55-year-old protester and the other a 22-year-old medic who was trying to treat the wounded. 307 other Palestinians were reported wounded, more or less all at the protest. Israeli tanks did, however, open fire on a pair of Hamas sites during the day as well.
There were no major exchanges of fire across the border, beyond the protest, which is a significant step toward deescalation. Israel hit well over 100 targets across the Gaza Strip in recent days, mostly civilian targets.
That wasn’t accidental, according to a Haaretz report. The report said the Israeli military was deliberately targeting “civilian targets, including population centers, with he goal of causing the residents to understand the price of escalation.”

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