Medical charity ‘working to verify’ that killed worker shot at Israelis

Doctors without Borders is investigating whether one of its employees was a gunman shot and killed by Israeli forces on the Gaza border this week.

Israeli authorities identified a gunman shot and killed on Monday after trying to cross the border – shooting at soldiers and throwing grenades – as Hani Majdalawi.

The organisation confirmed that Majdalawi, 28, had been killed but did not elaborate.

“We are working to verify and understand the circumstances regarding this extremely serious incident,” it said.

Israel has maintained a crippling siege on the coastal enclave since 2007, blocking goods coming in and out of the territory. It also controls Gaza’s airspace and sea border, where it has imposed a naval blockade.

In weekly protests against the siege since March 30, Israeli forces have killed at least 170 Palestinians, many of them unarmed, and wounded hundreds.

The charity has 200 local and foreign staff in Gaza and in May it condemned Israel’s use of force in border protests as “unacceptable and inhuman”.

Gaza authorities did not confirm Majdalawi’s death, saying that they believed his body was being held by Israel. No armed Palestinian factions claimed Majdalawi as a member.

Responding to Israeli media reports on his killing, one of his brothers described the married man on Facebook as a “martyr” who had “bought the weapon with his own money” .

The Facebook post said Majdalawi had worked for Doctors without Borders and that he had been “the most socially, psychologically and economically stable of the brothers”.