Martyred Palestinian laid to rest in Gaza

By Mehmet Nuri Ucar

GAZA CITY, Palestine

A Palestinian man martyred by wounds from Israeli army gunfire during protests in the Gaza Strip has been laid to rest.

Hundreds of people attended Saturday’s funeral for Ahmed Yahya Yagi, 25, who lived in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Separately, a Palestinian minor succumbed to injuries received during Friday’s protests in Gaza, Palestine's Health Ministry said.

Saturday’s fatality brings to 157 the number of Palestinians martyred and more than 17,000 injured since the protests began in late March.

Protesters demand the “right of 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 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities.