Israelis Wound 50 Gaza Strip Arabs
Israeli troops shot and wounded more than 50 Palestinians with live ammunition and rubber bullets on Thursday in seven hours of clashes fueled by army efforts to set up a new lookout post in a Gaza Strip refugee camp.
Residents of the Gaza Strip’s Rafah camp said the incident began when soldiers raised an Israeli flag on a rooftop in the camp.
Scores of teen-agers began throwing stones, the residents told Arab reporters.
The army said in a statement that “an army unit in Rafah was attacked massively by stones” and soldiers responded by “firing plastic bullets in a controlled fashion.”
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency said 58 Arabs were injured by live ammunition and rubber bullets and that 20 were treated for beatings. The army put the figure at 26.
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