A Palestinian teenage boy has died of a head wound he sustained from live fire by Israeli soldiers during an anti-occupation demonstration in the southern part of the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday that 15-year-old Muaman Abu Eyada had been shot in the head east of Rafah City on Wednesday night and had succumbed to his wound later at night in a hospital in the city.
Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesperson for the ministry said three other protesters had sustained injuries from live Israeli fire in the rally along the fence that separates the blockaded sliver from the occupied territories.
On Wednesday, Gazans marched in the funeral processions for four Palestinians who had been shot dead the day before by Israeli troopers.
Tensions have been running high near the fence since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests dubbed “The Great March of Return.” The Palestinian protesters have been demanding the right to return for those driven out of their homeland by Israeli wars and other acts of aggression since 1948.
The clashes in Gaza reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day, or the Day of Catastrophe, which coincided this year with Washington’s relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.
Israeli fire has taken the lives of more than 180 Palestinians since March 30. More than 19,000 Palestinians have also been wounded.
On June 13, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution, sponsored by Turkey and Algeria, condemning Israel for Palestinian civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip.
The blockaded sliver has been under Israeli siege since June 2007.