Health officials in the Gaza Strip say the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during Friday’s protests near the fence with Israel has risen to four.
Yousef al-Fasih, 29, was shot dead while demonstrating in the eastern Gaza Strip, Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
More than 600 people were wounded by Israeli forces, including photographer Mohammed Abed al-Baba, who was shot in the leg, Al Jazeera reported.
Al-Baba, who has worked for AFP news agency in the Gaza Strip since 2000, was shot while clearly identified in a press vest and helmet, around 200 meters from the fence east of Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Israeli troops shot and killed 15-year-old Haitham al-Jamal east of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza Strip, Wafa said, citing the health ministry.
Ziad Jadallah Bureim was also shot dead while participating in protests in the southern Gaza Strip, while Imad Nabil Abu Darabi, 26, was killed east of Jabalia town in northern Gaza Strip, Wafa added.
Of those injured, 92 protesters sustained live fire wounds, including seven who are critically wounded. Twenty-six children and 14 women are among the wounded. The remaining injuries were caused by teargas inhalation.
UN Emergency Meet
The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to vote on an Arab-backed resolution on Gaza, the body’s president Miroslav Lajcak has announced.
The resolution will condemn Israel, and will be similar to one vetoed by the United States in the Security Council last week, which called for protecting Palestinians from Israeli aggression, according to diplomats.
There are no vetoes in the 193-member world body, but while Security Council resolutions are legally binding, General Assembly resolutions are not.
Teargas Drones
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from the protests in the Gaza Strip, at the time of the recent rally said Israeli forces were firing teargas at protesters.
“They are using this in two ways, firstly coming in from jeeps ... to try and disperse the [crowd], [and] they are also using teargas drones,” he said.
“However, the Palestinians have figured out a way of dealing with these drones ... they’ve figured out that they can entangle a drone into kites, and they have managed to bring down an Israeli drone,” he added.
March of Return
For more than two months, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been protesting along the fence with Israel, demanding their right of return to the homes and land their families were expelled from 70 years ago.
The Great March of Return rallies culminated on May 15 to mark what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or Catastrophe—a reference to the forced removal of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages to clear the way for Israel’s establishment in 1948. The mass Friday demonstrations have since continued.
Since the protests began on March 30, Israeli forces have killed 124 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave and wounded more than 13,000 people.
