IOF kill seven Palestinians, injure 500 others, at Gaza border

Seven Palestinians, including two boys age 12 and 14, were killed by Israeli military fire during clashes along the Gaza Strip’s central and eastern sections of the border fence, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Friday.

The Occoupation Forces fired live bullets and rubber-coated steel rounds at the protesters who gathered at many encampments along the border.

The ministry identified the 12-year old as Yousef Abu Zarifa and said he was shot in the head east of Khan Younis Mohammad Ali Inshasi, 18, Mohammad Walid Haniya, 24, Mohammad Ashraf Awawdeh, 23, Mohammad Nayef al-Houm, 14, and Iyad Khalil Shaer, 18, Mohammad Ali Inshasi, 18, and Mohammad Bassam Shakhsa, 24.

A total of 506 Palestinians were injured in the clashes, the ministry said, some 90 of whom by Israeli fire. Of those wounded, 210 have been evacuated to hospitals.

More than 193 Palestinians have been killed and over 20,000 others injured by Israeli forces since the outbreak of the Great March of Return protests at Gaza border on March 30.

Most of the casualties occurred on May 14 when Palestinians marked the 70th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of historical Palestine and the ensuing ethnic cleansing of half a million Palestinian refugees.