Israeli forces shoot Palestinian dead in Gaza

Israeli forces have opened fire at Palestinians protesting in the northern part of the besieged Gaza Strip, killing a young man.

"Aeid Jumaa, 35, was killed and six other Palestinians were wounded during clashes along the Gaza border (with Israel) north of Jabalia," Gaza's Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said on Friday.

The Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad issued a statement, saying Jumaa was one of its members and was in fact aged 22.

People in the Gaza Strip have been staging protests to denounce the Israeli blockade.

Gaza has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.

The occupied Palestinian territories have witnessed new tensions ever since Israeli forces introduced restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in August 2015.

More than 300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the ongoing tensions since the beginning of October 2015.

The Tel Aviv regime has tried to change the demographic makeup of Jerusalem al-Quds over the past decades by constructing settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population. Palestinians say the Israeli measures are aimed at paving the way for the Judaization of the city.

The al-Aqsa Mosque compound is a flash point, which is also holy to Jews. The mosque is Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

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