Israeli gunfire wounds four in Gaza

Four Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire in northern Gaza on Thursday, including a 14-year-old boy who was shot in the head, Palestinian medical sources said.
The Israeli military confirmed that soldiers opened fire on several people who entered a security zone along Gaza's northern border with Israel.

A military spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said soldiers began shooting after firing warning shots, but that he was aware only that two Palestinians were wounded, both being hit in their lower bodies.

Adham Abu Selmiya, spokesman for the Hamas-run medical services in the Gaza Strip, told AFP that two people were seriously wounded by gunfire, and another two were lightly wounded.

"Four workers were injured as they searched for aggregate (gravel) in the northern Gaza Strip, two of them seriously, including a 14-year-old child who was hit in the head," Abu Selmiya said.

The other wounded were a 17-year-old shot in the back, who was in serious condition, an 18-year-old shot in the hand, classed as lightly wounded, and a 22-year-old also shot in the back whose injuries were light, he said.

Soldiers regularly open fire on Palestinians collecting building material from the rubble of destroyed buildings close to the border between the coastal enclave and Israel.

Between March 26 and December 10 this year, Israeli troops have shot at least 19 Palestinian children as they collected gravel in northern Gaza, charity group Defence for Children International said this month.

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