Othman Rami Hallas

July 13, 2018: Othman Rami Hillis, 15, was shot and killed by Israeli forces while at a protest at the Gaza-Israel border as part of the Great Return March protest.

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that Israeli soldiers killed Othman, and injured 220 residents, including one journalist, Mo’in ad-Dabba, and two medics, during Great Return March protests in the Gaza Strip.

The Health Ministry said 55 of the wounded Palestinians were rushed to hospitals in the coastal region, and added that 165 others suffered the effects of teargas inhalation.

The Health Ministry said an Israeli army sniper killed Othman with a live round, at a protest east of Gaza city.

A video of the incident showed the child, along with other Palestinian protesters, near the border fence when the Israeli army sharpshooter killed him as he reached for the railing on the fence, which is installed on the Palestinian side of the border.

The Great March of Return protests began on March 30, for the commemoration of Land Day, when, in 1976, six Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces, after protesting the confiscation of their land.

Demonstrations reached a peak on May 14th, 2018, which marked 70 years since the Nakba – the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians by Zionist militias. It was also the day that Donald Trump moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, thereby denying the right to exist of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in the city.

On May 14th, Israeli forces committed a massacre against the unarmed demonstrators in Gaza, killing 60.

Since then, over 137 Palestinians have been killed and some 15,000 others injured by Israeli forces attacking protests in Gaza since March 30th 2018.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) issued a detailed account of the assassination of Othman, and a condemnation of the shooting of the clearly unarmed protester.

Othman was from the Sheja’eyya neighborhood, east of Gaza city. Source: IMEMC