Israeli forces say they fired on Hamas after an Israeli civilian was slightly wounded by gunfire from Gaza.
Three Palestinian civilians have been injured in an Israeli tank fire that came after an Israeli civilian was slightly wounded by gunfire from Gaza along the Israeli border, officials said, during the first fires in the Gaza border months.
Israeli forces say they have responded to a gunshot wound that wounded an Israeli civilian on Wednesday with a tank fire overlooking a Hamas-controlled military base, which has ruled the besieged zone since 2007.
Gaza’s health ministry says three Palestinians have been injured. Local journalists shared photos of the three men as they were being transferred to a hospital in northern Gaza. He said they were all farmers.
Earlier Wednesday, Israel announced plans to improve access to the West Bank a missing meeting Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Israel has taken action in recent months saying it wants to reduce tensions, though an attack on the Indians of Israel on Palestine they have become more and more common.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday approved a series of measures aimed at improving relations with Palestine after welcoming Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to his Israeli home late Tuesday.
This is the first time Abbas has met with an Israeli official in Israel since 2010. The two have discussed security agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), which oversees the West Bank’s operating portfolio.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Israeli Ministry of Defense said “the two men had discussed security and development issues” at a conference, which, Israeli journalists said, took place at Gantz’s home in Rosh Ha’ayin in central Israel.
The Gantz office said it had approved “confidence measures”, including sending tax money to the PA, approving hundreds of permits for Palestinian traders and VIPs, and approving the presence of thousands of Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel collects hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes on behalf of the PA as part of the temporary peace agreements signed in the 1990s.
Tax evasion is a major source of income for wealthy Palestinians, but Israel has hidden money from the PA to provide for thousands of families whose relatives have been killed, injured or imprisoned.
Israel says the payments encourage “terrorism”, while Palestine says it provides much-needed assistance to needy families.
Israel maintains a register of Palestinian people, and for many years its policies have left nearly a large number of illegal Palestinians, and severely curtailed their freedom of movement, even in the occupied territories. Israel granted permission to about 4,000 Palestinians in October.
Israeli Prime Minister Naphtali Bennett against the Palestinian government. His government has not shown any interest in resuming peace talks, but wants to reduce tensions by improving the quality of life in the West Bank.
Tuesday night’s meeting was hosted by the new American ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides. “Let these sensational discussions lead to many other things that build confidence in the New Year. It benefits us all!” he tweeted.
But Hamas, in a statement, criticized the move as opposed to “the national spirit of our Palestinian people”.
The Gantz-Abbas summit – the second in six months since the Bennett coalition government took office – also criticized Israeli opposition leaders. They fear that the new government is planning to give more money to the Palestinian people.
Palestinians want an independent state that includes the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, areas where Israel was captured during the 1967 Middle East war.
Hamas annexed Gaza from Abbas forces in 2007, a year after the party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections. Gaza has been under siege by Israel and Egypt ever since.
The Gaza border has been quiet since Israel invaded 11 days in Gaza in May – their fourth since Hamas captured Gaza. At least 232 Palestinians in Gaza and 12 people in Israel were killed.
