Zonist forces martyr Palestinian teenage boy in Gaza

According to the Gazan Health Ministry, the Israeli forces killed the boy and injured five people – most of them children, east of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza Strip on Friday.

The child was identified as 16-year-old Fahd Mohammed Walid al-Astal.

Local sources said that the Israeli forces opened fire on dozens of young men who staged a protest east of Khan Yunis, noting that the rally was held although the organizers announced the annulment of the rallies slated for Friday.

The organizers attributed the decision to their desire to safeguard the blood of the protesters, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to “export his internal crisis to our besieged strip” after his failure to form a new government, deepening a political deadlock in the occupied territories.

The “Great March of Return” rallies have been held every week since March 30 last year. The Palestinians want the return of those driven out of their homeland by Israeli aggression.

Israeli troops have killed at least 307 Palestinians since the beginning of the rallies and wounded more than 18,000 others, according to the Gazan Health Ministry.

In March, a United Nations fact-finding mission found that Israeli forces committed rights violations during their crackdown against the Palestinian protesters in Gaza that may amount to war crimes.

Gaza has been under Israeli siege since June 2007, which has caused a decline in living standards.

Israel has also launched three major wars against the enclave since 2008, killing thousands of Gazans each time and shattering the impoverished territory’s already poor infrastructure.