The Israeli occupation army said that its forces bombed targets in the Gaza Strip, while news websites affiliated with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said that a "resistance observatory" was bombed in the eastern Gaza Strip, in conjunction with the injury of 22 Palestinians demonstrating near the separation fence.

A Palestinian was injured in the drone strike, and Yedioth Ahronoth confirmed that a Hamas military observation point in eastern Gaza had been targeted.

In turn, the occupation army announced – in a statement described as preliminary – that "the IDF is changing in the meantime in the Gaza Strip," and the statement indicated that the details will be published later.

It is noteworthy that the Israeli raid came after demonstrations in which hundreds of young men participated near the fence separating the Gaza Strip and the occupied territories, where the demonstrations continued for the sixth consecutive day.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that 22 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the eastern Gaza Strip during the dispersal of a demonstration near the border east of Gaza City.

Hundreds of Palestinians flocked to the separation fence to participate in demonstrations called – via social networking sites – by young men calling themselves "revolutionary youth", to condemn the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by settlers and the ongoing violations in the West Bank.

The youths set fire to used rubber tires and threw stun grenades near the separation fence.

On the other side of the fence, the Israeli occupation army deployed its forces, vehicles and sniper unit behind the nearby sand hills to disperse the demonstrations in the eastern areas of the Gaza Strip.

During the past few days, similar demonstrations took place in which a Palestinian was killed and dozens were injured and suffocated as a result of their dispersal by the occupation forces stationed on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli drone in the skies over Gaza (Reuters)

Incendiary balloons

Friday's demonstrations witnessed a remarkable development that Israel feared, as demonstrators resumed launching incendiary balloons towards settlements for the first time in two years.

Demonstrators launched dozens of balloons carrying flammable materials towards settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip.

Incendiary balloons are balloons that are attached to flammable materials that Palestinians began using in 2018 to express their protest against Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.

These balloons cause fires as soon as they fall on land in agricultural fields belonging to Israeli settlements adjacent to and near the Gaza border.

The participants explained that the launching of balloons will continue as long as the occupation continues "its crimes against our people, and the siege will be broken and will not last for a long time at all costs."

The Israel Broadcasting Corporation said a large fire broke out behind the settlement of Kibbutz Kissufim in the Gaza envelope, and suspected it was caused by incendiary balloons from the Strip.

Hebrew media reported that several fires broke out in the vicinity of Gaza as incendiary balloons launched from the Gaza Strip fell without injuries.

The Israeli Fire and Rescue Service reported that five fires were extinguished in the settlements surrounding Gaza by incendiary balloons.

Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the right-wing opposition Yisrael Beiteinu party, said on the X platform, "No wonder when there is a government of clowns, the balloons come back," referring to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The situation in the West Bank

In the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported earlier that a Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli occupation forces during their raid into the town of Kafr Dan (west of Jenin) at dawn on Friday, and the Israeli occupation forces arrested Khaled Tubayleh, one of the most prominent leaders of the "Lions Den" group, after besieging a house in the Rafidia neighborhood in the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli occupation forces stormed the neighborhood after midnight, surrounded the house where Khaled Tubaylah had taken refuge, and fired shells at the entrance to the house before storming it.