Gaza's Health Ministry said early Thursday that a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by IDF fire during a protest near the border fence with Israel.
The ministry said Moumin Abu Eiada was shot in the head as he participated with dozens in an overnight violent protest in southern Gaza.
An IDF spokesperson said troops came under attack on the border fence in the southern Gaza Strip, stones and firebombs were thrown at them and they responded with "riot dispersal means." Live rounds were fired according to open-fire regulations, she said.
After months of weekly marches along the Israeli frontier, Hamas has accelerated the pace of protests in recent days.
They also expanded the protests to a new location on Wednesday – Gaza's northwestern tip at the Mediterranean Sea where land and sea boundaries converge. On Tuesday, Palestinians protested outside the Erez border crossing, the only crossing point for people into Israel or the West Bank.
"This thunderous march will not stop until the ordeal is over. This is our resolution," Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said.
"Creating new ways and tactics and diversifying the marches is meant to achieve the coveted goal of … the lifting of the siege," Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said.
Hamas hopes to press Israel and Egypt into lifting a blockade they imposed on Gaza when the terrorist group took control of the coastal enclave in 2007. The group has accused its main political rival, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, of thwarting Egyptian-mediated efforts for a deal with Israel.
Hamas was close to reaching a deal and the mediation efforts reached their peak in August, but intervention by PA President Mahmoud Abbas resulted in "confusing and slowing" the discussions, Qassem said.
With limited options, Hamas resorted to escalating the border protests in response to "its feeling that it was let down," said independent Gaza analyst Akram Attallah.
Hamas expects the persistence of the protests will become "annoying to Israel and invite a renewal of mediation diplomacy," he said.
At the protests, Palestinians burn tires, hurl rocks and sometimes firebombs at Israeli troops. For some time, terrorists have launched incendiary kites and balloons across the fence to set fire to Israeli farmland.
