Palestinian Shot in Gaza Rally Succumbs to His Wounds

A Palestinian youth died at dawn Saturday from wounds he sustained after being shot by the Israeli occupation forces in the Great March of Return in Gaza.

News ID: 444079

Date: 31 March 2019 - 14:11

RNA - Spokesman for the Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qedra announced that martyr Mohammed Saad, 20, was hit by shrapnel in the head during a border demonstration East of Gaza city, Middle East News reported.

The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are set to take part in massive protests along Gaza border on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the Great March of Return.

A general strike was announced in all Gaza institutions on Saturday, which marks the Palestinian Land Day and the first anniversary of the Great March of Return. Thousands of Palestinians are expected to take part in large border protests in the afternoon.

As Palestinians mark a year of weekly demonstrations on Saturday, medical groups operating in the coastal enclave have expressed concern over the thousands of people who have been wounded.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced that Gaza had been "completely abandoned" over the past 12 months of rallies and that "the more than 6,500 people shot by Israeli forces during the protests have been largely left to their fate".

According to the medical charity, the vast majority of those injured had suffered leg wounds.

"These are not simple wounds that can be easily stitched up. Huge chunks of legs have been blown out and the bones within shattered," the group noted.

At the moment, Gaza does not have the capacity to treat all of its patients.

"We have a situation where the health system is overwhelmed, although MSF is doing all it can, we also won't be able to treat all those patients," MSF field coordinator Carla Melki said.

Before the anniversary of the Great March of Return protests, MSF stressed that its teams were gearing up for a "state of emergency".

"We're increasing our bed capacity. We are preparing for the worst scenario, as everybody thinks [like this] in Gaza," Melki added.

The United Nations Human Rights Council announced last week that Israeli troops may have committed war crimes by using excessive force against the protests.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have demonstrated along the fence demanding their right to return to the homes and land their families were expelled from 70 years ago. The Great March of Return rallies culminated on May 15 to mark what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or Catastrophe - a reference to the forced removal of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages to clear the way for Israel's establishment in 1948.

More than 270 Palestinian protesters have been killed and more than 30,000 Palestinians injured by Israeli forces since the outbreak of the Great March of Return rallies at Gaza border in late March.

The Gaza clashes reached their peak mid-May last year which coincided with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Gaza has been under Israeli siege since June 2007, which has caused a decline in living standards. Israel has launched three major wars against the enclave since 2008, killing thousands of Gazans each time and shattering the impoverished territory’s already poor infrastructure.

About 80 percent of the Gaza population is dependent on humanitarian assistance, while the strip experiences regular power outages and high unemployment. It has been dubbed as the world's largest open-air prison, with Palestinians needing Israeli army permits to enter and exit the enclave.

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