3 Palestinians injured in Israeli shelling into Gaza

By Mohammed Majid

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least three Palestinians were injured Sunday when Israeli forces attacked a group of civilians in Gaza's al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

"Three Palestinians were wounded as a result of Israeli targeting of a group of civilians in the eastern Gaza Strip," said Ashraf al-Qidra, Health Ministry spokesman.

The shelling was the third of its kind on Sunday, after Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas military post, in addition to a motorcycle near the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army announced earlier that it had targeted a vehicle in the Gaza Strip allegedly used to fly burning kites towards the Israeli territory surrounding the blockaded Gaza Strip.

In the past few days, a series of fires have erupted in settlements in the vicinity of Gaza after Palestinian demonstrators sent burning kites there, Israeli media reported.

Since "right of return" protests began on March 30, at least 132 Palestinians have been martyred -- along with thousands more injured -- by Israeli gunfire, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Protesters demand the “right of 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 draconian blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities.