GAZA – Thousands of angry mourners buried on Saturday seven Palestinians who were shot dead during clashes with Israeli soldiers stationed at eastern Gaza Strip.
Two of the killed were from Nuseirat refugee camp and one from al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip. The three bodies were taken by mourners from al-Aqsa Hospital in the town of Deir el-Ballah in southern Gaza Strip.
Two of the killed were from Gaza city and their bodies were taken from Shiffa Hospital.
Another killed was from Khan Younis and the last was from Rafah. They were taken from Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.
The largest funeral was of the three men from Nuseirat and Al-Bureij refugee camps.
The Palestinian deaths bring to around 200 the number of Gazans killed since the border protests began on March 30, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures.
Gaza medics said that, in addition to the seven dead, around 140 others were wounded.
Ashraf al-Qedra, the health ministry spokesman in Gaza, said in an emailed press statement that “it is clear and significant that the kind of gunshots and bullets the Israeli occupation was using Friday was very dangerous and deadly.”
“All the cases we dealt with yesterday, mainly those who were shot by live ammunition, were hard cases for the doctors because the Israeli occupation snipers were using this kind of bullets and targeting sensitive parts of the bodies,” he added.
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas movement politburo chief, said as he joined one of the funerals in Gaza that “the determination and spirit of our people to carry on with the marches of return have defeated the crimes of the Israeli occupation.”
“It is the right of our people to resist the occupiers and lift the unfair siege to live in dignity,” Haniyeh said in front of reporters, adding that “we are exerting every possible effort in order to break this siege that is imposed on Gaza for 12 years.”
The Israeli military has been criticised by the Palestinians as well as several international human rights groups for its lethal response to the protests.
The Palestinian protesters are demanding an end to an Israeli and Egyptian blockade on the narrow coastal strip, which is home to around two million Gazans. They also seek the right to return to lands that Palestinians were forced to leave in 1948.
Israel accuses Hamas, which controls Gaza, of orchestrating the protests along the border fence to provide cover for attacks and to distract from Gazans’ economic plight.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/world/at-least-six-palestinians-killed-by-israeli-fire-in-gaza-march-of-return-protest/
