By Nour Abu Aisha
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA): Israeli forces shot and killed one Palestinian along the border of the southern Gaza Strip, east of Khan Younis, during mass demonstrations on Friday, while another Palestinian succumbed to wounds sustained last week, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 22 since Palestinians in Gaza launched the “Great March of Return” on March 30.
UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, did not want make any comment on the killings in Gaza. Instead, her spokesperson told The Muslim News that the Foreign Office will respond. FCO sent The Muslim News minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt MP’s statement which was released on 30 March: “I am appalled by the deaths and injuries on the Israel/Gaza border on Friday (30 March). There is an urgent need to establish the facts, including why such a volume of live fire was used and what role Hamas played in the violence.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that Usama Khamis Qudeih, 39, was killed around 3:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon
“Thaer Mohamed Rabaa, 30, who was injured earlier east of the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, died today of his wounds,” ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement.
Rabaa was reportedly injured last Friday by cross-border Israeli army gunfire.
he Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has confirmed that Israeli soldiers killed, Friday, seven Palestinians, including one child, and injured 992 others, in several parts of the coastal region. An eighth Palestinian died from serious wounds suffered last Friday.
The latest fatality brings the number of Gazans killed by Israeli gunfire amid ongoing Palestinian rallies along the Gaza Strip’s eastern border with Israel — which kicked off last Friday — to 22
.
Over the same period, more than 1,500 Palestinians have been injured, according to the Health Ministry.
Palestinians in Gaza are holding a six-week-long demonstration along the border that will culminate on May 15. That day will mark the 70th anniversary of Israel’s establishment — an event Palestinians refer to as the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe”.
Demonstrators demand that Palestinian refugees be granted the “right of return” to their towns and villages in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
The Israeli army, meanwhile, has deployed thousands of troops along the border and has vowed to use live ammunition against anyone who threatens “Israeli security infrastructure”.
Additional news by The Muslim News and imemc.org
[Photo: A wounded Palestinian, who was injured by Israeli soldiers during a protest on the “Great March of Return” receives medical treatment in Gaza City, Gaza on April 06, 2018. Photographer: Abed Zagout/AA]