25 killed in Gaza Strip by Israeli forces since October

The Palestinian Ministry of Health says more than two dozen Palestinians have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries due to Israeli fire in the blockaded Gaza Strip since the beginning of October last year.

The ministry announced on Sunday that 25 Palestinians were killed and 1,400 others injured with live and rubber-coated steel bullets in the Gaza Strip since October 1, 2015, Arabic-language Palestine al-Yawm news agency reported.

It said that Israeli military forces used live rounds as well as internationally prohibited munitions in their confrontations with Palestinian protesters, and that the slain Palestinians sustained fatal gunshot wounds mostly in the upper parts of their bodies, including head, neck and chest.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health further noted that the unarmed Palestinians were typically targeted in agricultural areas close to the border fence in southern Gaza, adding that they did not pose any threat at all to heavily-armed Israeli troopers.

On January 15, an 18-year-old Palestinian, identified as Muhammad Abu Zayed, was fatally shot in the head as Israeli troopers fired live bullets to disperse Palestinian demonstrators east of Bureij refugee camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip.