Mohammad Issam Abbas

October 12, 2018: Mohammad Issam Mohammad Abbas, 21, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers who fired live ammunition at Palestinian protesters in Gaza.

The Palestinian Health Ministry has confirmed that Israeli soldiers killed, Friday, seven Palestinians, and injured 252, including 50 children, 10 woman and one journalist, after the army fired dozens of live rounds, in addition to high-velocity gas bombs, during the Great Return March processions, in several parts of the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Ashraf al-Qedra, the spokesperson of the Health Ministry in Gaza said the soldiers also targeted a medical post, east of the al-Boreij refugee camp, in central Gaza wounding two medics.

Dr. al-Qedra added that 154 of the wounded Palestinians were shot with live Israeli army fire, and were rushed to local hospitals in the Coastal Region.

He said that the soldiers killed the following Palestinians at protests on October 12, 2018:

  1. Mohammad Issam Mohammad Abbas, 21, from Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza.
  2. Ahmad Ibrahim Zaki Taweel, 27, from the Nusseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.
  3. Ahmad Ahmad ِAbdullah Abu Na’im, 17, from the Nusseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.
  4. Mohammad Abdul-Hafith Yousef Ismael, 29, from the al-Boreij refugee camp, in central Gaza.
  5. Afifi Mahmoud Ata Afifi, 18, from Gaza city.
  6. Abdullah Barham Suleiman ad-Daghma, 25, from Abasan al-Jadeeda in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza Strip.
  7. Tamer Eyad Mahmoud Abu ‘Armana, 22, from Rafah, in southern Gaza Strip.

It is worth mentioning that Abdullah has two brothers who were killed by the Israeli army; Suleiman was killed in 2005, while Bassam was killed in 2011.

The seven were all killed at protests – an estimated 14,000 protesters gathered along the Gaza-Israel border at a number of different sites, where they were attacked by Israeli soldiers stationed at military bases on the border who fired live ammunition.

Media sources in Gaza said the soldiers fired dozens of live rounds directly at the protesters along the eastern border area of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army claimed that some protesters placed a bomb on the perimeter fence, and detonated it, before twenty protesters cross the fence, and the soldiers opened fire at them, killing three who approached a sniper post.

Other protesters took the bodies of the three Palestinians, and returned to the Gaza Strip. The army did not report any injuries among its soldiers.

On Friday morning, Israeli sources said firefighters extinguished ten blazes caused by flammable balloons, in lands in Israeli settlements across the perimeter fence.

Since the weekly ‘March of Return’ border demonstrations began on March 30th of this year, 204 Palestinians have been killed and more than 22,000 wounded by Israeli forces, who regularly fire indiscriminately on the protesters.

More than 4,000 of the wounded were hit with live ammunition fired by Israeli soldiers toward the demonstrators.

The protests call for ending the 12-year-long Israeli blockade of Gaza and for the right of return of the refugees.

Many of the casualties – more than 60 – occurred on May 14 when Israeli forces attacked Palestinian protesters marking the 70th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of historical Palestine and the ensuing ethnic cleansing of half a million Palestinian refugees.

Mohammad was from Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza. Source: IMEMC