17 August 2018•Update: 18 August 2018
By Mohamed Majed
GAZA CITY, Palestine
At least two Palestinians were martyred and 40 others injured on Friday by Israeli army gunfire near the security fence between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel, according to a Gaza Health Ministry official.
“Karim Abu Ftair, 30, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers near the eastern border of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip,” Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement.
Another 40 Palestinians were wounded by live bullets while 201 were suffocating after inhaling tear gas, he added.
Since "right of return" protests began on March 30, at least 162 Palestinians have been martyred -- along with thousands more injured -- by Israeli gunfire, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes 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 draconian blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities.
