By Ayse Sumeyra Aydogdu and Hamdi Yildiz
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA): Four Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed Friday in the blockaded Gaza Strip during a rally against Israel’s decades-long occupation and an Israeli airstrike.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said in a written statement that two people, including 19-year-old Raid Abu Tair, were killed by Israeli gunfire in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis during the rally.
One Palestinian, identified as Ramzi Rawhi ‘Abdo, 31, died from serious wounds he suffered, Friday, after the soldiers shot him with a live round in the head, east of al-Boreij in central Gaza.
It said the others were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing.
A total of 82 people were also injured in both incidents, including 34 children, two journalists and three paramedics.
According to the Israeli army, two of its soldiers were injured at the Gaza border.
In response, the army said it destroyed a target belonging to the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
Protesters in Gaza demand the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes 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 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities.
Palestinians have been protesting against Israel since March 2018 as part of the “Great March of Return”, during which Israeli troops have opened fire on civilian crowds with live bullets.
The following table shows the number of civilian casualties due to the Israeli forces’ suppression of the Great March of Return as published by the PCHR in its report this Friday: (This report was issued before Ramzi Rawhi Abdo died from his wounds, therefore, the number of slain Palestinians is now 205)
Killed | Wounded | |
Total | 204 | 12350 |
Children | 44 | 2424 |
Women | 2 | 375 |
Journalists | 2 | 201 |
Medical personnel | 3 | 201 |
Persons with disabilities | 8 | Undefined |
Note:Among those wounded, 548 are in serious condition and 137 had their lower or upper limbs amputated; 123 lower-limb amputations, 14 upper-limb amputations, and 25 children had their limbs amputated according to the Ministry of Health. The number of those wounded only include those wounded with live bullets and directly hit with tear gas canisters, as there have been thousand others who suffered tear gas inhalation and sustained bruises. |
*Writing by Nilay Kar Onum and Can Erozden
Additional report from Imemc.org
[Photo: 19-year-old Raid Abu Tair, were killed by Israeli gunfire in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis during the rally. Photo by Imemc.org]