Israeli forces kill three Palestinians in Gaza

International Desk: Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinian demonstrators and wounded more than 950 at the Gaza border, despite the UN human rights chief urging Israel to stop using excessive force against Palestinian protesters.

A fourth victim, a 15-year old boy named Azzam Hillal, died of his wounds on Saturday. He was shot in the head by Israeli military during Friday's protest.

Among the wounded, 178 were shot with live ammunition on Friday while others sustained injuries from rubber-coated steel rounds, or required treatment for tear gas exposure.

Thousands gathered in the besieged Gaza Strip for the fifth-straight Friday as part of a mass sit-in known as the Great March of Return movement. Palestinians have been demanding the right to return to their homes seized by Israel in 1948.

The protests raised the total death toll to at least 45 Palestinian demonstrators, with more than 6,000 wounded since the mass movement began on March 30. There have been no Israeli casualties.

Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from the scene in Gaza, said thousands of demonstrators were seen "running towards the border fence with Israel, the closest that they have ever been in the past five weeks of protests".

"We heard an opening of live fire by Israeli forces trying to push people back from that border," Dekker said.

"Israel has made it very clear that they want people to stay away from ... what they call a buffer zone. They say people will be shot."

Eighteen medical personnel and journalists were among the wounded.

Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for Gaza's health ministry, said Israeli forces also targeted medical service points twice with quantities of unidentified gas east of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

A number of victims experienced convulsions, severe vomiting and suffocation as a result of their exposure, he said.

Source: Al Jazeera online


risingbd/Dhaka/April 28, 2018/AI