ONE Palestinian was killed and 167 others injured by Israeli forces on Friday as hundreds of protesters gathered at the eastern border of the Gaza Strip for the seventh consecutive Friday to demand their right of return to their pre-1948 homes in historical Palestine. Jabr Salem Mustafa, 40, was shot dead by Israeli forces in his chest while partaking in the nonviolent protests at the border to the east of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza Strip.
A WAFA correspondent said Israeli snipers opened gunfire at the protesters who were gathering at many locations along the border, injuring 167 of them, seven of them seriously. The injured were moved to hospitals for medical treatment, with their injuries ranging between minor and moderate. Over 48 Palestinians have been shot dead by the Israeli forces, while more than 8,500 others were injured, since the outbreak of the protests on March 30.
A WAFA correspondent said Israeli snipers opened fire at the protesters who were gathering at many locations along the border, injuring 15 of them. The injured were moved to hospitals for medical treatment, with their injuries ranging between minor and moderate. Many countries have reportedly declined to attend the US embassy relocation ceremony in occupied Jerusalem al-Quds in a show of anger at President Donald Trump’s recognition of the city as Israel’s ‘capital’.
The Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported that only 30 out of 86 foreign envoys serving in Israel had accepted Tel Aviv’s invitation to the Sunday reception. Israel’s Hadashot TV news said many European envoys, including those from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, were set to boycott the May 14 event.
Meanwhile thousands of Palestinians are in encampments set up in five locations along the Gaza border, including Khan Younis, Rafah and al-Bureij refugee camp, to demand their right of return to their villages and towns they were forcibly displaced from in 1948.
Earlier sixteen Palestinians were injured and scores of others suffocated by Israeli forces during clashes in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, on Friday morning said a medical official. Director of the Red Crescent’s First Aid and Emergency Centre in Nablus Ahmad Jibril told WAFA that Israeli forces shot two protesters with live ammunition and 14 others with rubber-coated steel bullets, and caused 45 others to suffocate from tear gas inhalation. He added that the live ammunition injuries were rushed to a Nablus-based hospital for treatment, while all suffocation cases were treated at the scene.
This came as busloads of hundreds of settlers forced their way into Joseph’s Tomb, east of Nablus, under heavy Israeli military protection, triggering clashes. Palestinian residents clashed with soldiers and attempted to block settlers’ access to the site, while soldiers opened fire at them. The protests are set to reach their climax on May 15, which marks the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe), in which over 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes to make way for the creation of Israel in 1948.
