UPDATE - Gazans flock to Israel buffer zone for 53rd weekly demo

UPDATES WITH CASUALTIES

By Mohammed Majid

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Hundreds of Palestinians flocked to the Gaza-Israel buffer zone on Friday, where they took part in ongoing anti-Israel demonstrations for the 53rd week in row.

Demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and carried pro-Palestine banners, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent covering the event.

In a statement, Gaza’s National Committee for Breaking the Siege (comprised of several Gaza-based resistance factions) called on the people of Gaza to take part in Friday’s rally.

On Friday evening, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that a Palestinian teenager had been killed near the buffer zone by Israeli army gunfire.

“Masira Abu Shallouf, 15, was martyred after being shot in the abdomen east of the city of Jabalia,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that at least 30 other demonstrators had been injured.

Since Palestinians began holding weekly rallies along the buffer zone more than a year ago, nearly 270 demonstrators have been killed and thousands more injured.

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.