Israeli forces injure 17 Palestinians in Gaza

Israeli forces have opened fire at anti-occupation protesters gathering on the edge of the besieged Gaza Strip, leaving 17 people injured.

Palestinian media outlets cited the Gazan Health Ministry as saying that 17 Palestinians had been shot and injured east of Gaza on Friday.

The ministry said that teargas canisters fired by the Israeli forces directly hit a journalist and three paramedics during the Friday rallies.

The Israeli attack on the Palestinian protesters came a day after a United Nations Human Rights Council-mandated investigation found that the regime’s forces may have perpetrated “war crimes” or “crimes against humanity” in the campaign against the Palestinians in Gaza.

The Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas has said Israel must be held fully accountable for the crimes it has committed in the besieged enclave.

Tensions have been running high in Gaza since March 30, when the protests started. Palestinian protesters demand the right to return for those driven out of their homeland by Israeli aggression. They also demand a halt to Israel’s inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The clashes in Gaza reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day, or the Day of Catastrophe, which coincided this year with Washington’s relocation of its embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.

More than 260 Palestinians have so far been killed and at least 26,000 others wounded in the renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gazan Health Ministry.