GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Latest on the Israel-Palestinians conflict (all times local):
11:55 a.m.
Hundreds have attended the funeral of an 11-year-old Palestinian boy, apparently the youngest killed by Israeli fire in six months of protests along Gaza's perimeter fence.
Nasser Musabeh was among seven protesters who Gaza health officials say were killed by Israeli troops near the fence Friday.
Protests began in March and recently accelerated after the latest failure to negotiate an easing of Gaza's 11-year-old border blockade. Israel and Egypt imposed the closure after the Islamic militant Hamas seized Gaza in 2007.
Friday marked the deadliest day of protests since mid-May when 60 Palestinians were killed.
Gaza health officials initially said Musabeh was 12. However, his family gave his date of birth as Dec. 21, 2006.
Another 11-year-old was previously killed in unclear circumstances in the protests by a blunt object.
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8:30 a.m.
Palestinian health officials say Israeli troops have killed seven Palestinians, two of them children, and wounded dozens more as Gaza's Hamas rulers stepped up protests along the border fence.
Friday marked the deadliest day in recent weeks as thousands of Palestinians gathered at five locations along Gaza Strip's frontier with Israel in response to calls by Hamas, the militant group that has controlled Gaza since seizing it from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.
Two of the dead were children, aged 12 and 14, the Gaza Health Ministry said, adding that all the dead had gunshot wounds. At least 90 other protesters were wounded by live fire, officials said.
Hamas has led weekly protests since March, but accelerated them in recent weeks to near daily events, pressing for an end to a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas's violent takeover of Gaza in 2007.
