3 martyred, including child, near Gaza-Israel border

GAZA CITY, Palestine

At least three Palestinians, including a child, were killed Friday by the Israeli army near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said a 14-year-old boy had been killed instantly after being shot in the head by Israeli troops east of the town of Jabalia.

Meanwhile, east of Khan Yunis, a Palestinian male sustained a fatal gunshot shot, according to the ministry.

Eighty other Palestinians, including 18 children, were reportedly injured, six seriously, by Israeli army gunfire elsewhere along the buffer zone.

Mohammad Shaqqura, 21, was martyred after being hit by a bullet in the chest in the central Gaza Strip's Maghazi refugee camp, located in the Deir al-Balah Governorate, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

On Friday, Palestinians converged on the border area to take part in weekly demonstrations against Israel’s decades-long occupation.

Since the rallies began March 30, scores of Palestinians have been martyred -- and thousands injured -- by Israeli troops deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.

Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its more than 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities.