Israeli air-to-ground missile wounds 3 Palestinians in central Gaza

Gaza, March 23 (Xinhua) -- At least three Palestinians were injured on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike targeting the area east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, medics said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the Health Ministry in Gaza, told reporters that three men were slightly injured by the shrapnel of a missile fired by an Israeli drone, adding that the injured were sent to hospital for treatment.

An Israeli army spokesman said in a press statement that the Israeli air forces attacked a group of Palestinians who were launching arson balloons carrying explosives from eastern Gaza Strip to southern Israel.

Tension on the border between Gaza and Israel has been mounting for almost one year since the start of the marches of return, an anti-Israel protest calling for an end to the 12 years of Israeli blockade on the coastal enclave since 2007.

According to the Health Ministry officials, the Israeli army has killed 261 demonstrators and wounded more than 29,000 others since the start of the protests, and around 40 percent of the casualties were shot by Israeli soldiers' gunfire.

On Friday, two Palestinians were killed and 62 others injured by Israeli soldiers' gunfire during clashes that broke out in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel.

Meanwhile, Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip said in a press statement that it welcomes the United Nations Human Rights Council's condemnation towards the Israeli killing of Gaza demonstrators in the marches of return.

"The decision is a step in the right direction towards backing the Palestinian legitimate rights and criminalizing the occupation (Israel) in the international organizations," Hamas statement said.