Gaza, Agencies -- A woman shot during protests in the occupied Gaza Strip on Friday is the first Palestinian fatality at the hands of Israeli occupation forces in 2019. A Palestinian man was shot and seriously wounded by Israeli forces in the West Bank the same day.

Amal al-Taramsi, 44, died after she was shot in the head by live fire during Great March of Return protests east of Gaza City. She was 200 meters away from the boundary fence at the time of her injury, according to the Gaza-based human rights group Al Mezan.

Al-Taramsi is the third female to be killed during the protest series that was launched on 30 March last year. The other two female fatalities were medic Razan al-Najjar and 14-year-old Wesal al-Sheikh Khalil.

More than 180 Palestinians have been killed in the context of Great March of Return protests held along Gaza’s eastern and northern boundary.

Israeli forces also aimed tear gas canisters at the bodies of Palestinians during Friday’s protests, injuring 68 people with them, according to Al Mezan.

Nearly 150 Palestinians were injured during Friday’s protests. Graphic video shows one person said to be seriously injured after being shot in the head.

Gaza’s health ministry has said that some 14,000 persons have been hospitalized for injuries sustained during the Great March of Return demonstrations since their launch.

Protesters are calling for an end to Israel’s siege on the territory while demanding that Palestinian refugees be able to exercise their right to return to the lands from which their families were expelled around the time of Israel’s founding in 1948.

Two-thirds of Gaza’s more than two million residents are refugees, many originally hailing from lands just beyond the Israel boundary fence.


Source: Electronic Intifada