18 April 2018•Update: 18 April 2018
By Hani al-Shaer
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Four people were injured early Wednesday in an Israeli artillery attack on the town of Khuzaa in the southern Gaza Strip.
One of those injured is now in critical condition and is receiving treatment at the European Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis, a medical source, preferring anonymity, told Anadolu Agency.
An Anadolu Agency correspondent based in the Gaza Strip said that Khuzaa had been the target of intense Israeli army shelling and gunfire earlier Wednesday.
Tension has mounted in the blockaded Gaza Strip since March 30, when Palestinians began holding mass rallies along the coastal enclave’s 45-kilometer eastern border with Israel.
Since then, at least 35 Palestinian demonstrators have been martyred -- and another 3,000 injured -- by cross-border Israeli army gunfire.
The rallies are part of a planned six-week border protest that will culminate on May 15. That day will mark the 70th anniversary of Israel's establishment -- an event Palestinians refer to as the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe”.
Demonstrators demand that Palestinian refugees be granted the “right of return” to their towns and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
