Nine Palestinians were shot and wounded, three of them seriously, in violent confrontations with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, hospital sources said.
The clashes erupted in several parts of the strip as hundreds of Palestinians joined the funeral of Jaber Ahmad al-Mishal, 23, who was killed the day before by an Israeli bullet near the Erez crossing point between Gaza and Israel.
Masked men fired into the air as mourners, many brandishing Palestinian flags and those of the militant Hamas group and the Lebanese Shiite guerrilla movement Hizbollah as they carried the body through the streets of Gaza City.
"Revenge, Revenge, Ezzedine al-Qassam," the crowds chanted, referring to Hamas's military wing that has carried out numerous anti-Israeli attacks. "We are going to Jerusalem with millions of martyrs."
The clashes occurred near the town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, in Rafah near the border with Egypt, and near the Karni crossing point into Israel.
Demonstrators also set fire to several Israeli buses at Erez with Molotov cocktails, witnesses said.
Al-Mishal was one of four Palestinians killed by Israeli troops on Friday on a "day of rage" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that also left up to 200 people injured.
The latest deaths brought to 144 the number of people killed -- mostly Arabs -- since violent confrontations broke out after Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon's controversial September 28 visit to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied east Jerusalem, a site sacred to both Jews and Muslims – GZA CITY (AFP)
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