Two Palestinians Dead, 400 More Injured by Israeli Soldiers in Gaza

Two Palestinians were died and some 400 others were injured by Israeli forces in the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday, September 7. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that Bilal Mustafa Khufaja, 19, was killed by an Israeli live bullet to the chest near the return camps of eastern Gaza City during the 24th consecutive Friday of “The Great March of Return.” The victim was a resident of the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood of western Rafah City in the southern Gaza Strip.

The ministry added that at least 395 other Palestinians, 35 of them children, were injured; 147 of the injured were transferred to hospitals for treatment including 100 wounded by live fire, 12 of whom are children. The ministry also said that three paramedics and three journalists were among the injuried.

Palestinian demonstrators protest the 11-year long closure of Gaza Strip, Wednesday September 5, 2018.

Palestinian demonstrators protest the 11-year long closure of Gaza Strip, Wednesday September 5, 2018. (Photo: Activestills)

Another Palestinian youth succumbed, early Friday, to wounds he had sustained during a previous protest along the eastern border of the Gaza Strip. Medics at al-Shifaa Hospital announced that Amjad Fayez Hamduneh, 19, from Jabalia died of his wounds incurred from Israeli gunfire when he participated in a Great March of Return protest to the east of his hometown on July 14. Due to his critical condition, Hamduneh had been transferred from the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia to al-Shifaa Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Friday. With his death, the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israeli gunfire since March 30 reached 173.

Also on Friday, a 16-year-old Palestinian was injured by a rubber-coated steel bullet fired by an Israeli soldier as occupation forces  suppressed the weekly anti-settlement march at the village of  Kafr Qaddum in the northern West Bank district of Qalqiliya. Coordinator of the popular resistance committee in Kafr Qaddum, Murad Ishteiwi, said that Israeli forces raided the village, climbed to the rooftops of houses and fired rubber-coated steel bullets and tear-gas canisters at protesters taking part in the march.

Residents of Kafr Qaddum began staging weekly protests in 2011 against Israeli land confiscations, as well as the closure of the village’s southern road by Israeli forces. The road, which has been closed for 14 years, is the main route to the nearby city of Nablus, the nearest economic center.