<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">The Israeli army launched a drone strike on the Gaza Strip on Saturday after violent protests in which three Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire, sources on both sides said.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The early evening strike is one of a series that have come amid near-daily protests at the border by Palestinians after Israel closed the Erez crossing from Gaza.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A drone "struck a military post belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation, adjacent to the area where a violent riot was taking place", the army said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It added that "shots were fired toward" Israeli soldiers near the border during the strike, without reporting any casualties.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A Palestinian security source told AFP that an "Israeli aircraft had targeted a Hamas surveillance site east of Gaza City", without mentioning any casualties.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier in the day, Palestinian demonstrators faced off against Israeli soldiers stationed along the border fence, an AFP journalist reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Demonstrators set fire to tyres and threw stones at Israeli soldiers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Three Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire, according to the Gaza health ministry.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel has imposed an air, land and sea blockade on the impoverished Palestinian enclave ever since the Islamist group Hamas seized control in 2007.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thousands of Palestinian workers from Gaza have been prevented from entering Israel by the closure of the Erez crossing, which an Israeli NGO, Gisha, condemned as "collective punishment".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel has issued work permits to some 18,500 Gazans, COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, said on Tuesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since September 13, six Palestinians have been killed and nearly 100 wounded during violence at the border, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Armed conflict sporadically erupts between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In May, an exchange of Israeli air strikes and Gaza rocket fire resulted in the deaths of 34 Palestinians and one Israeli. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>