132 Palestinians killed by Israel since March 30

UNITED NATIONS/GAZA CITY — A Palestinian was killed by Israeli occupation forces’ fire on Monday near the Gaza Strip's border fence with Israel, the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory said.

Gaza's health ministry said "Sabri Ahmed Abu Khader, 24, was killed by bullets of the [Israeli] occupation forces," without giving further details.

Also on Monday, a 13-year-old Palestinian shot recently by Israeli forces in protests on the Gaza border died of his wounds, the health ministry in Gaza said. 

Zakaria Bishbash was hit in the stomach by Israeli fire several days ago, ministry spokesman Ashraf Al Qudra said, without giving further details.

At least 132 Palestinians have been killed since mass protests broke out along the Gaza border on March 30.

No Israelis have been killed.

Israel's use of live ammunition against Palestinian protesters in Gaza has left health workers struggling to cope with an unprecedented crisis, with more than 13,000 wounded, a senior Red Cross official said on Monday.

Robert Mardini, head of Middle East for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told reporters that the "vast majority" of the 13,000 hospitalised protesters had suffered severe wounds, including multiple gunshot wounds.

"This is I think a crisis of unprecedented magnitude in the Gaza Strip," said Mardini. 

The wounded caseload from the seven weeks of protest had surpassed that of the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza.

The Red Cross is planning to open a new 50-bed surgery unit at Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital to help deal with the surge in gunshot wounds. 

Some 1,400 patients have been hit by three to five bullets, many in the legs, which require several complex orthopedic and reconstructive surgeries.

The protests peaked on May 14 when at least 61 Palestinians were killed as thousands approached the heavily guarded border fence on the same day the United States moved its Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Palestinians are demanding the right to return to the homes their families fled or were expelled from during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.

The Gaza Strip is controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas, which Israel considers its bitter enemy.

The two sides have fought three wars since 2008 and observe a tense ceasefire.

Israeli occupation forces claimed on Monday that five "terrorists" had "attempted to sabotage a security infrastructure in the area of the barrier in the northern Gaza Strip".

"The security infrastructure exploded," it said in an English-language statement. "Subsequently, several terrorists were injured."

Earlier, Israeli occupation warplanes conducted strikes against nine Hamas "military targets" in northern Gaza in response to incendiary kites and balloons being sent into Israeli territory, the army said.

The attacks targeted two Hamas military sites and a munitions manufacturing site, the military said in a statement, without specifying whether the raids had resulted in casualties.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned after Monday's strikes that Gazans would pay a price for the “fire attacks”.

Palestinian security sources said nobody was wounded in the morning air strikes.

"Fire balloons" and kites carrying flammable material have become symbols of the Palestinian border protests in recent months.

Lieberman says that 400 kites have been intercepted out of some 600 launched since the end of March.

The kites represent a form of resistance targeting the Israeli economy.

So far more than 300 fires have devastated several thousand hectares of fields and shrubland, according to the Israeli fire service.