Gazan youth dies of wounds from Israeli fire

A Palestinian youth on Sunday succumbed to wounds he sustained from Israeli army fire in the Gaza Strip a day earlier, according to the health ministry.

Habib al-Masri, 24, was shot and injured during anti-occupation protests in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday. On Friday, two Palestinians – aged 18 and 29 – had been killed by Israeli army gunfire at the Gaza-Israel border, during weekly protests as part of the “Great March of Return”.

“He died of his wounds on Sunday,” the ministry said in a statement.

Since March of last year, more than 250 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured by Israeli army fire during protests demanding 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 two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.

Read: Israel avenges burning balloons with airstrikes on Gaza refugee camp

Israeli forces have recently been targeting Gaza with airstrikes, alleging that burning kites and balloons were sent from Gaza to the Israeli side.

Last week, on March 15th, the Israeli airforce carried out a staggering 100 air strikes in the Gaza Strip. Following the air strikes, Israel warned it would continue to use “uncompromising force” against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip should the UN Security Council not condemn the alleged launching of two rockets towards Tel Aviv. For its part, Hamas said that Israel is causing new crises in the Gaza Strip through its military escalation and targeting of Palestinian resistance sites and civilian facilities.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Friday condemned Israel’s “apparent intentional use of unlawful lethal and other excessive force” against civilian protesters in the Gaza Strip during the Great March of Return.

Read: UNHRC condemns Israel’s use of ‘lethal force’ against Gaza protesters

A Palestinian medic carries away an injured protestor during a weekly “Great March of Return” demonstration near the Israel-Gaza border, on March 22, 2019 [Mohammad Asad / Middle East Monitor]

Palestinians carry an injured man after Israeli forces fired at protesters during the Great March of Return in Gaza on 22 March 2019 [Mohammad Asad/Middle East Monitor]

Palestinians seen carrying away an injured protestor during a weekly “Great March of Return” demonstration near the Israel-Gaza border, on March 22, 2019 [Mohammad Asad / Middle East Monitor]

Palestinian protestors seen near a section of the Israeli border fence, during a weekly “Great March of Return” demonstration near the Israel-Gaza border, on March 22, 2019 [Mohammad Asad / Middle East Monitor]

Palestinian protestors seen near a section of the Israeli border fence, during a weekly “Great March of Return” demonstration near the Israel-Gaza border, on March 22, 2019 [Mohammad Asad / Middle East Monitor]

Palestinian protestors seen near a section of the Israeli border fence, during a weekly “Great March of Return” demonstration near the Israel-Gaza border, on March 22, 2019 [Mohammad Asad / Middle East Monitor]