Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired some 20 rockets toward southern Israel on Sunday, hours after Israel said it killed a Palestinian suspected of placing a bomb along the barrier fence.
The Palestinian “Islamic Jihad” said the man was one of its members, but it did not disclose what he was doing in the area.
In a statement, the Israeli military said soldiers opened fire at two Palestinians placing an explosive device next to the fence in the Hamas-run enclave.
It said one of the men was killed and a military bulldozer removed his body.
Following the incident, a video from Gaza emerged showing a bulldozer approaching the body as young, apparently unarmed men, were trying to collect it.
The sound of gunfire is heard and the men ultimately run away as the bulldozer collects the body. A tank can be seen positioned nearby.
Witnesses and health officials said two other Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire directed at a group of people that had approached the area and tried to recover the body.
The Gaza health ministry said that two civilians were wounded by Israeli gunfire at the scene.
Hawkish Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has pursued a policy of retaining the bodies of fighters from Gaza as bargaining chips.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, accused the Israeli military of abusing the corpse, saying that it “bears the consequences of the ugly crime.”
Bennett rejected the criticism, noting that Hamas has been holding the bodies of two Israeli soldiers since they were killed in the 2014 Gaza war.
He backed the military for killing the man on Sunday, saying: “That's what should be done and that is what was done.”
