Thousands of Palestinians gather as Israeli killings incite border violence

By Fares Akram / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli aircraft struck several militant sites across the Gaza Strip early Saturday shortly after militants fired rockets into southern Israel, the Israeli military said. Israel's chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot conducted a situational assessment while the airstrikes and barrages of rockets continued, the army added without elaborating.

The cross-border violence came hours after Israeli forces shot and killed four Palestinians protesting along the perimeter fence dividing the Hamas-ruled Gaza and Israel.

In a rare statement implicitly claiming responsibility for the rocket fire, the smaller Islamic Jihad group said it has always exercised restraint, but it "can no longer stand idle before the continued killing of innocents and bloodshed by the Israeli occupation." There was no word on injuries as a result of the rockets and airstrikes.

The bloodshed and exchange of missiles complicated the mission of Egyptian mediators, who intensified their shuttle diplomacy to achieve calm and prevent a full-blown conflict between the militant Hamas group and Israel. The Israeli army has confirmed at least 12 launchings, adding that its Iron Dome defense system intercepted several missiles.

On Friday, thousands of Palestinians gathered at five locations along the boundary, burning tires and throwing rocks, grenades and firebombs at Israeli troops who responded with tear gas and occasional live fire. The Israeli army said some suspects briefly crossed the fence.

In a separate incident, the military said its aircrafts struck three Hamas military posts in northern Gaza Strip. Three of the dead were reported in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to the ministry. Witnesses said that dozens of protesters approached the fence there. In northern Gaza, a 27-year-old man died after being shot in the head, the ministry said.

It added that 170 other protesters sustained various injuries. Hamas has scaled down the protests over the past two weeks as Egypt stepped up its efforts to secure calm. On Wednesday, Egyptian intelligence officials met representatives of Palestinian factions in Gaza.

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Date confirmed on the page (folio).

Context added by this archive

Folio reads "Saturday, October 27, 2018 / Arizona Daily Star" — masthead and date both agree with Maria's label, and this fixes the date for the whole Oct 27 cluster.

This is the fifth printing of the same AP story in the batch and by far the most honest headline of the five: "Thousands of Palestinians gather as Israeli killings incite border violence" names the Israeli killings as the cause, where the Chicago Tribune ran "Airstrikes follow protests in Gaza", The Journal Star ran "Rockets hit Israel after deadly Gaza protest", The Free-Lance Star ran "After Gaza protests, rockets strike Israel" and The Courier ran "After deadly Gaza protests, rockets hit southern Israel".

Four of the five put the rockets in the headline; one puts the killings. Photo caption: "Protesters use sling shots to hurl stones at Israeli troops while others burn tires near the fence of the Gaza Strip border with Israel during a protest east of Gaza City Friday." Credit: ADEL HANA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.

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"Thousands of Palestinians gather as Israeli killings incite border violence," Arizona Daily Star, 27 October 2018. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2018-036. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2018-036