13-YEAR-OLD PALESTINIAN BOY SHOT AND INJURED BY ISRAELIS

Gaza, 23 Rabiul Akhir 1435/23 February 2014 (MINA) – A Palestinian child at the age of 13 has been seriously injured on Friday evening as Israeli occupation forces east of Rafah fired at him.

Medical sources at Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip said Fadel Abu Odwan, 13, was shot in the pelvis, assessing his this status as critical.

The child was transferred to the European Hospital in Khan Younis given his serious injury, the sources added, ALRAY, Palestinian Media Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The Israeli occupation military claimed that they targeted a militant, saying that the shooting was carried out after the ‘militant’ did not respond to the calls of the Israeli soldiers.

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Some 16 Palestinian civilians were earlier injured, one child critically, by Israeli occupation forces east of Jabalya, during a weekly border protest against Israel limiting the buffer zone imposed along the east borders and the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The buffer zone is between 500 meters and 1500 meters into the Strip, effectively turning local farms into no-go zones.

According to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), 17 percent of Gaza’s total land area and 35 percent of its agricultural land were within the buffer zone as of 2010, directly affecting the lives and livelihoods of more than 100,000 Gazans.

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16 Gazans injured in Israeli border gunfire

Sixteen Palestinians were wounded by Israeli army gunfire Friday in two separate incidents near the border fence in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said.

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the health ministry, said a 12-year-old boy was in serious condition after being shot in the head northeast of Gaza City near Jabalia.

Thirteen other Palestinians who had been throwing stones at Israeli soldiers were also wounded when the troops opened fire at them, he added.

In the other incident a Palestinian boy, also aged 12, was seriously wounded by Israeli gunfire near the Sufa crossing east of Rafah in southern Gaza, Qudra told AFP.

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Clashes are common on Fridays, with regular protests near the border in support of Gaza farmers who say troops uprooted their trees to create a buffer zone.

Six Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and one Israeli since late December.

Friday’s escalation comes amid Israeli threats directed to Gaza-governming Hamas with a full-scale offensive, while the later says it’s committed to maintaining Egypt-mediated cease-fire agreement which followed an eight-day aggression that led to 167 Palestinians mostly civilians killed. (T/E01/IR)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)