Gazans hold funeral for Palestinian teen killed by Israeli forces

Rasa - Hundreds of Palestinian mourners have held a funeral procession for a 15-year-old boy who was shot dead by Israeli troops during protests in the besieged Gaza Strip.

News ID: 438661

Date: 15 July 2018 - 18:42

RNA - The Palestinians marched through the streets of Gaza City on Saturday to attend the funeral for Uthman Rami Hals, a day after Israeli regime forces killed him and injured 25 others when they opened fire on peaceful protesters taking part in a march in the Gaza Strip in solidarity with the occupied West Bank village of Khan al-Ahmar.

The demonstrators were protesting the Tel Aviv regime’s policy of expelling local Palestinian residents from Khan al-Ahmar.

Palestinians in Gaza have been rallying every Friday since March 30 as part of a peaceful campaign known as the Great March of Return.

The protests have led to clashes with Israeli forces, where some 140 Palestinians have been killed. Palestinian protesters demand their right to return to their homeland. Over 15,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries.

On May 14, Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians who had gathered near the Gaza fence to protest the inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem al-Quds. Over 60 Palestinians were shot dead and more than 2,700 wounded by Israeli snipers who had been positioned along the fence.

Every year on May 15, Palestinians all over the world hold protest rallies to commemorate the day which marks the anniversary of the forcible Israeli eviction of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said children in the Gaza Strip are the main victims of Israeli atrocities, where some 1.8 million people are living under a crippling blockade.

According to Press TV, Gaza has been under Israeli siege since June 2007, causing a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.

Israel has also launched several wars on the Palestinian sliver, the last of which began in early July 2014 and ended in late August the same year. The Israeli military aggression killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians and injured over 11,100 others.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement released on July 11 that Israeli authorities had demolished 197 Palestinian structures in the West Bank during the first half of 2018 as the Tel Aviv regime presses ahead with its land expropriation policies in the occupied territories.

The world body announced that eight homes, 10 livelihood-related structures and four retaining walls or fences were destroyed last month.

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