Palestinian youth killed in Israel Gaza bombing

Twenty-year-old Palestinian Mohammad Jehad Saad was killed this morning in an Israeli artillery bombing in the east of Gaza City.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Saad was wounded by shrapnel when Israel bombed a Palestinian security checkpoint.

This came amidst intensified efforts by the Palestinian factions and security services in the besieged Gaza Strip to keep the planned one-million-man protest – which marks the one year anniversary of the Great March of Return – peaceful.

Saad’s death brought the number of Palestinians killed by Israel during the Great March of Return to 267.

Read: Israel deploys tanks near Gaza before Saturday rallies

In the run-up to Saturday’s rallies, the Israeli army has deployed numerous tanks and armored vehicles along the buffer zone with the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly instructed the army to prepare for the possibility of a “broad” campaign in Gaza.

Nearly 270 Palestinian demonstrators have been killed by Israeli army gunfire since Palestinians began holding regular demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone in March of last year.

Demonstrators 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 two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.

In Pictures: Land Day in Gaza

Palestinians seen at the anniversary march of the “Great March of Return” and “Palestinian Land Day” protests at Israel-Gaza border on March 30, 2019 [Mohammad Asad / Middle East Monitor]

Palestinians seen at the anniversary march of the “Great March of Return” and “Palestinian Land Day” protests at Israel-Gaza border on March 30, 2019 [Mohammad Asad / Middle East Monitor]

Palestinians seen at the anniversary march of the “Great March of Return” and “Palestinian Land Day” protests at Israel-Gaza border on March 30, 2019 [Mohammad Asad / Middle East Monitor]

Palestinians seen at the anniversary march of the “Great March of Return” and “Palestinian Land Day” protests at Israel-Gaza border located near Al Bureij Refugee Camp in Gaza City, Gaza on March 30, 2019 [Hassan Jedi / Anadolu Agency]

Palestinians seen at the anniversary march of the “Great March of Return” and “Palestinian Land Day” protests at Israel-Gaza border located near Al Bureij Refugee Camp in Gaza City, Gaza on March 30, 2019 [Hassan Jedi / Anadolu Agency]

A Palestinian women at a protest in Gaza on 30 March 2019 [Mohammad Asad / Middle East Monitor]

Protesters gather to attend “Great March of Return” and “Palestinian Land Day” demonstrations at Israel-Gaza border located in eastern Khan Yunis, Gaza on March 30, 2019 [Ashraf Amra / Anadolu Agency]

Palestinians seen at the anniversary march of the “Great March of Return” and “Palestinian Land Day” protests at Israel-Gaza border on March 30, 2019 [Mohammad Asad / Middle East Monitor]

Palestinians seen at the anniversary march of the “Great March of Return” and “Palestinian Land Day” protests at Israel-Gaza border located near Al Bureij Refugee Camp in Gaza City, Gaza on March 30, 2019 [Hassan Jedi / Anadolu Agency]

Israeli forces shoot multiple tear gas canisters at a Palestinian woman with during the anniversary march of the “Great March of Return” and “Palestinian Land Day” protests at Israel-Gaza border located near Al Bureij Refugee Camp in Gaza City, Gaza on March 30, 2019 [Hassan Jedi / Anadolu Agency]