12 Palestinians Killed, 470 Wounded as Israel Extends Crackdown

Israeli troops were out in force in the occupied West Bank and along the Gaza border fence, attacking Palestinian protesters as the unrest in the territory continues to grow. Over the course of Friday, seven Palestinians were killed, and 470 others were wounded nationwide, many of them critically. On Saturday morning, Israeli troops killed five more, including two children in Gaza.

Israel has been cracking down on unrest in the area around Jerusalem and the West Bank all week, following a terrorist attack with new restrictions on Arabs across the area, and then moving militarily against the protesters rallying against those restrictions. The West Bank was again the site of most of the casualties, with 1 killed in Hebron and 410 others wounded.

The deaths, overwhelmingly, came from the Gaza Strip, which was previously not part of the latest military operations. Today, however, reports of demonstrations along the border fence had the military reacting aggressively, opening fire on the demonstrators with live rounds, killing six and wounding 60. Many of the 60 wounded in Gaza are not expected to survive, as health officials say they were shot in the head and neck with sniper fire and gravely wounded.

Among West Bank injuries, many of them are not likely to be fatal, with a lot of the protesters shot with rubber bullets, and 279 of the hospitalized recovering from exposure to tear gas. There were few reports of Israeli troops being wounded, but despite this officials presented the various incidents as “clashes.”