GAZA CITY: Thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral on Saturday of a young female volunteer medic killed by Israeli fire in violence on the border in southern Gaza. Razan al Najar, 21, a volunteer with the Gaza health ministry, was fatally shot in the chest near Khan Yunis on Friday. Ambulances and medical crews attended the funeral, with her father holding the white blood-stained medics’ jacket she wore when she was shot, as mourners called for revenge.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it was investigating the apparent killing by its troops of the Palestinian nurse.
In a written statement on Saturday, the military said it would investigate Al Najar’s death.
Her death brought to 119 the number of Palestinians killed in weekly demonstrations launched on March 30 in the Gaza Strip, an enclave controlled by Hamas and long subject to grinding Israeli and Egyptian embargoes.
The UN Middle East peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov said on Twitter: “Medical workers are #NotATarget!”
“#Israel needs to calibrate its use of force and Hamas need to prevent incidents at the fence. Escalation only costs more lives,” he added.
Israel has drawn international condemnation for its use of deadly force during the mass demonstrations. It says many of those killed were Hamas members and fighters trying to launch attacks under cover of the protests.
The Palestinians say most of the dead and the thousands wounded were unarmed civilians against whom Israel was using excessive force.
In a statement published by the Palestinian official news Agency
Wafa on Friday, Health Minister
Jawad Awwad condemned Al Najar’s killing and said it violated international law.
SHOT DEAD: On Saturday, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian who allegedly tried to ram a tractor into soldiers and civilians in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said.
The troops tried to stop the man after he attempted to run over an officer and a soldier with a “Bobcat” vehicle in Hebron, a military statement said.
Hebron is the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank with a population of some 200,000. About 1,000 Israeli settlers live in the heart of the flashpoint city, protected by the Israeli military.
Footage circulating on social media showed Israeli soldiers pulling a man’s body out of a small tractor standing in a street. — AFP/Reuters
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