Agence France-Presse
GAZA CITY - A Palestinian man was killed on Thursday when Israeli troops opened fire on stone-throwing demonstrators protesting at the Jewish state's crippling blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, a medic said.
The killing occurred hours after a militant died in a failed suicide truck bombing at the main border crossing between Israel and Gaza, where continuing violence is clouding peace efforts.
Hamas, the Islamist movement which has ruled Gaza for almost a year, is insisting there will be no truce in the impoverished sliver of land unless Israel lifts its siege.
Witnesses said about 2,000 people joined a protest called by Hamas to demand an end to the blockade, which Israel says it maintains to try to force militants to stop firing rockets and mortar rounds at the Jewish state.
Most of the protesters stayed at a distance from the Karni crossing point just outside Gaza City, but several hundred marched to the border with Israel, some hurling stones at soldiers.
An Israeli military spokesman said the troops opened fire on armed men they spotted in the crowd, including one he said was carrying a shoulder-fired anti-tank rocket launcher. He said the Palestinian gunmen also opened fire.
A 22-year-old man died of gunshot wounds and 17 were wounded, including at least three boys aged 12 to 15, said Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services.
"The Palestinian groups will not give a truce to Israel if Israel does not accept our demand to end the closure, open borders and stop aggression," Hamas official Ismail Haniya said in a statement.
Haniya, a former Palestinian prime minister, said the Hamas delegation had returned from Cairo where Egypt has been battling to mediate a truce in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel has made agreement to a truce conditional on progress in negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured almost two years ago by Gaza militants in a deadly cross-border raid.
The Islamist Hamas movement wants some 450 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails in exchange for Shalit, and insists the swap is an entirely separate issue from the proposed truce.
Gaza area violence has clouded renewed peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, increasing doubts that they will achieve their stated aim of reaching a deal by the end of the year.
Earlier Thursday, a Palestinian militant died in a failed suicide attack when the explosives-laden truck he was driving blew up short of the Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel.
Islamic Jihad said the bomber, Ibrahim Nasser, 23, was a member of its armed wing, the Al Quds Brigade.
It said the truck, which was packed with 400 kilos (almost 900 pounds) of explosives, blew up earlier than planned a few hundred metres (yards) from the border crossing.
There were no reports of Israeli casualties.
The powerful explosion damaged buildings on the Palestinian side of the border and Palestinians shot at Israeli troops at the crossing without hitting anyone, Israeli public radio said.
Other armed Palestinian militants who were driving behind the truck fled after their car rolled over, witnesses said.
Israel's army radio said the car was targeted by a military helicopter and that several militants were hit.
The United Nations condemned the failed suicide attack.
"Incidents of this kind are totally unacceptable. They also act against the interests of the population of the Gaza Strip, because aid workers and medical cases must pass through Erez," the spokesman for UN special envoy Robert Serry said.
"We call upon those responsible in Gaza to ensure that incidents of this kind as well as continued rocket attacks upon Israel cease," Richard Miron added.
"For its part, the government of Israel must ensure that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) operates with care and restraint ensuring its actions are in full conformity to international humanitarian law," Miron said in a statement.
In another incident, 62-year-old Salem Al-Bahabsa, was killed by Israeli troops near Bureij, in central Gaza, according to Palestinian emergency services.
Israeli forces launch almost daily attacks against militants in Gaza, where Hamas seized power in June, ousting forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Thursday's deaths brought to at least 478 the number of people killed since Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks in November, the vast majority of them Gaza militants, according to an AFP count.