Gazan dies of injuries from Israeli fire

By Mostafa Haboosh

GAZA CITY, Palestine

A Palestinian youth on Saturday succumbed to wounds he sustained from Israeli army gunfire in the blockaded Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry.

Ayman Munir Shbeir, 18, was shot in the abdomen during anti-occupation protests in Gaza on Friday.

“He died of his wounds on Saturday,” the ministry said in a statement.

Saturday’s death takes to four the number of Palestinian martyred by Israeli army fire near Gaza’s buffer zone since Friday. Dozens others were injured.

Palestinians have been staging mass protests in Gaza to demand the right to 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 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.

Since the rallies began on March 30, more than 240 Palestinians have been martyred -- and more than 25,000 injured -- by Israeli troops deployed near the buffer zone.