Two Gazans hurt by Israel army gunfire near buffer zone

GAZA CITY, Palestine

Two Palestinians were injured by Israeli army gunfire on Tuesday near the buffer zone separating Israel from the blockaded Gaza Strip.

In a statement, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the pair had been shot east of central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp, where they had gathered to take part in an anti-occupation demonstration.

The ministry did not provide details regarding the extent of the injuries.

More than 250 Palestinian demonstrators have been killed by Israeli army gunfire since Palestinians began holding regular demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone in March of last year.

Demonstrators demand the right of Palestinian refugees to 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 years-long blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.

Written by Mahmoud Barakat