At least 20 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli fire while protesting in the Gaza Strip to assert the right of displaced Palestinians to return to their land.
Ashraf al-Qedra, the spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, said in a Tweet that the victims had been injured during anti-occupation protests held east of Gaza City on Friday.
🚨اصابة 20 مواطن برصاص قوات الاحتلال الاسرائيلي خلال الجمعة ال47 لمسيرات العودة وكسر الحصار.
— د.أشرف القدرة (@press221) February 15, 2019
Tensions have been running high near the fence separating Gaza from the occupied territories since March 30, which marked the start of the protests.
Palestinian protesters demand the right to return for those driven out of their homeland by Israeli aggression.
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 its embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.
More than 250 Palestinians have so far been killed and over 26,000 others wounded in the renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry.
Gaza has been under Israeli siege since June 2007, causing a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.