April 2, 2018: Fares Roqab, 29, died from serious wounds he suffered last Friday, when Israeli soldiers attacked nonviolent demonstrators marching near the border between Gaza and Israel in commemoration of Palestinian Land Day.
Dr. Ashraf Al-Qedra, spokesperson of the Health Ministry in Gaza, said the Palestinian was shot with a live round in his abdomen, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
He added that the Palestinian remained in a very critical condition from Friday until he died from his wounds despite all efforts to save his life.
Fares was one of 17 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces on March 30th at the Land Day protests. The Israeli military also injured at least 1416 Palestinians. 758 were shot by live ammunition, and 148 injured by rubber-coated steel bullets. The others were injured by tear gas, concussion grenades and other so-called ‘non-lethal’ weapons. At least twenty of the wounded Palestinians suffered life-threatening injuries, especially since the soldiers used exploding bullets.
Dr. Ashraf Al-Qedra, the spokesperson of the Health Ministry in Gaza, confirmed that 18 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli attacks on the protests. Hospitals and medical centers across the Gaza Strip issued urgent appeals to the Palestinians to donate blood for the wounded.
The fatal Israeli attacks, and the injuries, came shortly after the Israeli military, and the political leadership in Tel Aviv, decided on “shoot to kill orders” against Palestinians who tried to breach, or even approach the border fence.
The Israeli Cabinet also decided to significantly increase military deployments, in addition to using live fire and shoot to kill orders “if the Palestinians breach (or approach) the security fence” in the besieged coastal territory.
Protests took place throughout the day on March 30th across the besieged Gaza Strip, and the Israeli army also fired shells at a site east of the al-Boreij refugee camp, in central Gaza, and another site, southeast of Gaza city.
In Ramallah, in central West Bank, the soldiers injured dozens of nonviolent Palestinian protesters, at the northern entrance of al-Biereh city.
The soldiers also attacked dozens of nonviolent protesters on Budrus, west of Ramallah, wounding many Palestinians.
Also in Ramallah, the soldiers shot three Palestinians with live fire, and caused dozens to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation, after the army engaged in an excessive use of force against nonviolent protesters in Nabi Saleh village, north of the city.
Two Palestinians were also shot with live fire, after the army attacked protesters on their lands, near the illegal Halamish Israeli colony, which was built of lands owned by villagers of Deir Nitham, west of Ramallah.
In Nabi Saleh village, northwest of Ramallah, the soldiers attacked dozens of protesters, and fired dozens of gas bombs at them.
In Bil’in village, west of Ramallah, dozens of Palestinians, accompanied by Israel and international peace activists, held the weekly procession against the Annexation Wall and Colonies, and protesting the ongoing occupation, and the illegal American recognition of occupied Jerusalem as the unified capital of Israel.
In addition, soldiers attacked nonviolent protesters in Qusra village, southeast of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, while they marched carrying olive branches to plant them in their lands.
The soldiers also attacked nonviolent protesters in Hebron and abducted at least two Palestinians.
In addition, the soldiers shot a Palestinian child with live fire in his leg, after the army invaded the al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
March 30th 2018 marks the 42nd Anniversary of the Palestinian Land Day, when Israel illegally annexed 21000 Dunams of Palestinian lands, and issued the “Absentee Property Law” which allowed it to confiscate the lands of displaced Palestinians.
The army invaded many villages and towns and killed six Palestinians on that day (March 30, 1976) in various parts of occupied historic Palestine, and the Palestinians started marking it since then, expressing their determination and steadfastness in their struggle for liberation.
Fares was from the Gaza Strip. Source: IMEMC
April 4, 2018: Mojahed Nabil al-Khodary, 23, was killed by Israeli forces who fired a drone missile at a protest near the Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel.