PALESTINIAN JOURNALIST KILLED IN ISRAEL-GAZA PROTESTS
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| Palestinian journalist killed by Israeli fire |
A Palestinian journalist died on Saturday
after being wounded by Israeli fire on Friday while covering deadly protests
along the Israel-Gaza border, health officials said.
Yaser Murtaja, 30, a cameraman for
Palestinian Ain Media, was the 29th Palestinian killed in the week-long
protests.
Photos showed Murtaja lying wounded on
a stretcher wearing a navy-blue protective vest marked ‘PRESS’ in large black
capital letters. Health officials said a live bullet had penetrated the side of
his abdomen and he succumbed to his wounds in hospital.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said
the army was looking into the incident and could not comment further at this
stage.
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| Palestinians evacuate mortally wounded Palestinian journalist Yasser Murtaja, 31, during clashes with Israeli troops at the Israel-Gaza border, in the southern Gaza Strip April 6, 2018. |
The daily protests, dubbed “The Great
March of Return”, began on March 30 along the Israel-Gaza frontier, reviving a
longstanding demand for the right of return of Palestinian refugees to towns
and villages from which their families fled, or were driven out, when the state
of Israel was created.
Israel has stationed sharpshooters to stop
attempts by Palestinians to breach the border or sabotage the security fence.
Freelance photographer Ashraf Abu Amra
told Reuters he was next to Murtaja, whom he said was wearing a helmet and
protective vest. Abu Amra said they were both clearly marked as journalists.
“We were filming as youths torched
tyres. We were about 250 meters from the fence,” said Abu Amra. “Israeli forces
opened fire and injuries began. Yaser and I ran to film when suddenly Yaser
fell to the ground.
“I screamed to him ‘Yaser are you
alright?’. He didn’t respond and there was blood on the ground underneath him.
I knew it was a bad injury and people carried him away,” said Abu Amra.
FUNERAL
Video footage showed Murtaja being
carried to an ambulance with crowds around and black smoke rising from where
protesters had set tyres alight, east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza
Strip.
Murtaja was married with a
two-year-old son. Hundreds of mourners, among them many journalists, attended
his funeral on Saturday.
His body was covered with a
Palestinian flag and his press jacket laid beside him on the stretcher as it
was carried through the streets of Gaza City to his home for a last farewell.
“I made him breakfast, he ate quickly,
he was in a hurry to go to work,” said Murtaja’s mother, Yusra, recounting the
morning of the protest.
“I thought he would recover from his
injury, I didn’t expect his death, but God has chosen him as a martyr, thank God,”
she said, sitting on the ground as mourners came to the house to pay their
respects.
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| Colleagues of Palestinian journalist Yasser Murtaja, 31, who died of his wounds during clashes at the Israel-Gaza border on Friday, mourn during his funeral in Gaza city April 7, 2018. |
Israel Radio, citing an unnamed source
in Gaza, said Murtaja had been operating a camera drone on Friday. Abu Amra and
two other Palestinian journalists said Murtaja was not operating a camera drone
when shot.
Murtaja, on his Facebook page, had
posted two aerial photos taken at the border in the past week. It was unclear
if he had taken them himself.
At least three other journalists were
wounded on Friday in other locations, Gaza officials said. There have been no
Israeli casualties in the protests.
Israel’s response to the protests has
drawn international criticism, with human rights groups saying it involved live
fire against demonstrators posing no immediate threat to life.
Israel says it is doing what it must
to defend its border and its troops have been responding with riot dispersal
means and fire “in accordance with the rules of engagement”.
Hamas, the Islamist group that runs
Gaza, says the protests demanding the right of return of refugees will
continue.
The Israeli government has ruled out
any right of return, fearing the country would lose its Jewish majority.
Israel says many of the dead were
militants and that Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the
West, is using the protests as cover to launch attacks along the border and
ignite the area, while putting Gaza’s civilians at risk.
Hamas rejects this.
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