NEW PALESTINIAN DEATHS BRING TOLL FROM ISRAEL CLASHES TO 40
TWO PALESTINIANS WOUNDED IN CLASHES WITH ISRAEL WERE PRONOUNCED DEAD; PALESTINIAN BOY’S LEG AMPUTATED AFTER ISRAEL BORDER SHOOTING
Two Palestinians wounded in clashes with Israel were pronounced dead on Monday, a Gaza oficial said, bringing the toll from Israeli ire since March 30 to 40.
A spokesman for the Hamascontrolled territory’s health ministry named the latest fatalities as Tahrir Wahba, 18, and Abdullah Shamali, 20.
Wahba was shot in the head in a clash east of Khan Yunis on April 6, and Shamali died of “bullet wounds to his belly” sustained on Friday, said spokesman Ashraf Al Qudra.
Most of the 40 Palestinians killed by Israel since the start of “March of Return” protests on March 30 were shot by snipers on the border, while a few others were killed by Israeli artillery or air strikes.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians in the coastal enclave, wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean, have gathered at the border on consecutive Fridays to call for Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return to their former homes now inside Israel.
Some protesters have launched stones or burning tyres at Israeli soldiers.
Israeli forces have responded with live ammunition, wounding hundreds in addition to those killed.
The Israeli army says its troops only open ire in self-defence or to stop protesters attempting to breach the barrier separating the territory from Israel.
More than 440 demonstrators suffered bullet wounds or gas inhalation on Friday, rescuers said.
Israel has drawn harsh criticism from rights groups along with calls for investigations by the United Nations or the European Union.
Israel has for more than a decade imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza, ighting three wars with hardliner movement Hamas since 2008.
Also on Monday, Hamas’s military wing said one of its men died in an explosion.
It said in a statement that Mohammed Al Maqadma, 55, was killed by an “explosive projectile” ired by an unnamed group which it described as hostile to Hamas.
It did not elaborate further.
The Gaza health ministry said a child was wounded in the same blast, in the northern part of the strip.
Doctors have amputated the leg of a Palestinian boy whose image went viral after he was shot by Israeli troops in clashes on the Gaza border with Israel.
A picture of 12-year-old Abdel Rahman Nawfal screaming in pain after being shot was widely shared on Palestinian and Arabic social media last week after he was shot near the border fence.
The shooting occurred on Tuesday during clashes along the frontier east of Al Bureij in central Gaza.
He was later taken from Gaza to the West Bank for treatment but doctors were unable to save the leg. Attempting to smile as he lay on his hospital bed in Ramallah, Nawfal said he had been stoning Israeli soldiers close to the border when he was shot.
“My friends went to throw stones at the army near Al Bureij camp. I went with them and started to throw stones,” he told AFP. “Soon after I felt the injury.”
He said he dreamed of becoming a doctor and would still like to realise that dream.
To leave Gaza for treatment in the West Bank, Palestinians have to get permits from Israel which critics say are dificult to obtain.
On Friday, Gaza teenager Mohammed Ayoub was killed by Israeli gunire during border protests.
The 15-year-old’s death, and the wounding of other youths brought a scathing response from a senior United Nations oficial.
“It is OUTRAGEOUS to shoot at children... #Children must be protected from #violence, not exposed to it,” UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Nikolay Mladenov wrote on Twitter.
The Israeli army said on Saturday that it was opening an investigation into the incident, in accordance with standard procedure.
Forty Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since wide-scale protest broke out on March 30.