By Mohamed Majid and Said Ibicioglu
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA): At least three Palestinians were killed Friday by Israeli army gunfire — and another 376 injured — amid ongoing demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone.
In a statement, Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for Gaza’s Health Ministry, said that one of the three killed was a minor.
According to al-Qidra, “dozens” of Palestinian protesters were affected by teargas while 376 others, including 10 women and 32 children, sustained gunshot injuries. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the Israeli troops fired live bullets and rubber-coated steel rounds at the protesters.
Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights said the soldiers killed Mahmoud Akram Abu Sam’an, 23, with a live round in his chest, east of Gaza city. The Palestinian was from the Nusseirat refugee camp, northeast of Deir al-Balah, in Central Gaza.
It added that the soldiers also killed a child, identified as Fares Hafeth Abdul-Aziz Sarsawi, 12, with a live round in the chest, east of Gaza city. The child was from the Sheja’eyya neighborhood in Gaza.
The third Palestinian was identified as Mohammad Fathi Hussein al-Reqeb, 18, from Bani Suheila town, was shot with a live round in the abdomen, east of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
The soldiers also shot a volunteer medic, identified as Tasneem Fathi Hammad, 20, with a gas bomb in her right leg, and volunteer medic Mohammad Samir Za’anin, 30, with a gas bomb in his head, in Jabalia, in northern Gaza.
The army also fired gas bombs at ambulances, causing damage to at least one ambulance, east of Gaza city.
In addition, the soldiers also shot a photojournalist, identified as Dua’ Farid Zo’rob, 20, with a live round in her leg, east of Khan Younis, journalist Khaled Ramadan al-Aswad, 21, with a live round in his left leg, photojournalist Mohammad Hazem al-Masri, 20, with a gas bomb in his head, photojournalist Mousa Soheil Oleyyan, with bullets’ fragments in his arm, east of Jabalia in northern Gaza, and journalist Mohammad Emad Za’noun, with rubber-coated steel bullets in his right leg, east of Gaza city.
Seven of the injured persons were in serious condition, he added.
Demonstrators demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.
According to the Health Ministry, more than 198 Palestinians have been killed — and 22,000 others injured — since the rallies first began on March 30.
Additional report form Imemc.org
[Photo: Medics carry wounded journalist Dua Zagrab after the shooting by Israeli forces during the “Great March of Return” demonstration near Israel-Gaza border, in Khan Yunis, Gaza on October 5, 2018. Photojgrapher: Ashraf Amra/AA]
