Funeral held for Palestinian fisherman gunned down by Egyptian forces

Palestinians have taken part in a funeral procession held for a fisherman who died a day after Egyptian forces shot him off the coast of the Gaza Strip.

In a first incident of its kind, Egyptian naval forces on Friday opened fire on Abdullah Ramadan Zidan’s fishing boat and injured him near the city of Rafah, which is located on the Gaza-Egypt border. The 33-year-old fisherman later succumbed to his injuries.

Mourners carried Zidan’s body, which was draped in a Palestinian flag, through the streets of Gaza City on Saturday.

"We are looking for a living. We do not go here or there, and we don't have equipment that poses a danger to them (Egyptian naval forces). We go out for our livelihood, and to earn a living for our children. In the end, the person returns in a shroud," said a Palestinian who participated in the funeral procession.

The Palestinian Interior Ministry has called on Egypt to investigate the shooting.

The Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the "unjustified" attack.

Gaza fishermen suspended their work for 24 hours in protest.

Palestinian fishermen have often come under fire by Israeli forces in the past.

The Gaza Strip has been under Israel’s blockade since June 2007. The blockade has impoverished the sliver, making fishing a staple source of income and sustenance to its nearly two-million-strong population.

Egypt, one of the only two Arab countries to ever sign a peace accord with Tel Aviv, has participated in the enforcement of the siege of Gaza by keeping the Rafah border crossing, Gaza’s only land terminal that bypasses Israel, closed.

The United Nations has warned that the combined draconian measures are feared to make Gaza uninhabitable by 2020.

The Gaza Strip is already considered the world’s largest open-air prison.

Israeli forces teargas Palestinian protesters in West Bank

Separately on Saturday, Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian protesters in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli troops fired tear gas at the protesters who were rallying in solidarity with 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi, who was arrested last month by Israel for allegedly attacking soldiers.

The teenager, campaigning against the Israeli occupation, could face up to 14 years in prison after being indicted for allegedly assaulting a pair of Israeli soldiers outside her home in the village of Nebi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah.

Almost 6,280 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli jails, 465 of them under the controversial administrative detention, according to figures provided by the Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes to voice their outrage at the administrative detention, which is a form of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows Israel to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months.

Palestinian prisoners complain that they have been subjected to assault and torture at Israeli prisons.

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