israel has faced mounting questions over its use of live fire after 10 days of protests and clashes along the border fence with Gaza.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman denied reports about a number of “innocent people” having been killed in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
“There are no innocent people in the Gaza Strip,” Lieberman told Israel's public radio. “Everyone's connected to Hamas, everyone gets a salary from Hamas, and all the activists trying to challenge us and breach the border are Hamas military wing activists,” he added.
Health officials in Gaza earlier said that 30 Palestinians, including a journalist, had been killed during 10 days of protests and clashes with Israeli security forces, AFP reported from Jerusalem.
Violence along the border fence which separates the Palestinian enclave from the territory of the Jewish state, flared up again on Friday leaving nine nine Palestinians, including a journalist, dead.
Palestinian journalist Yasser Murtaja was killed on Saturday after covering mass protests along the Israeli border the previous day.
Witnesses said Murtaja was over 100 meters (yards) from the border, wearing a flak jacket marked “press” and holding his camera when he was shot in an exposed area. The Israeli military has said it fired only at “instigators” involved in attacks on soldiers and was investigating Murtaja's death.
Friday's clashes came a week after 19 Palestinian protesters were killed…
