By Nour Abu Aisha
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – A Palestinian youth on Sunday succumbed to wounds he sustained from Israeli army fire during anti-occupation protests in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry.
Osama Khalil Abu Khater, 29, was injured in the abdomen during a rally held in Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement.
“The youth, however, died of his wounds today,” the spokesman said.
Sunday’s death brings to 132 the number of Palestinians martyred -- along with thousands more injured -- by Israeli gunfire since the protests began on March 30, 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 two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.