Gazan dies of wounds from Israeli fire

By Nour Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – A Palestinian youth on Monday succumbed to wounds he sustained from Israeli army fire in the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry.

Bassam Safi, 22, was injured during anti-occupation protests in the southern city of Khan Younis last month.

"He died of his wounds on Monday," the ministry said in a statement.

More than 250 Palestinian demonstrators have been martyred 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 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 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.