‘Palestinians have paid a great price for their call for life with dignity during mass protests held along Gaza’s boundary with Israel over the past eight months.
Some 180 Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli occupation forces and nearly 6,000 others injured by live fire during the Great March of Return.
“The vast majority of casualties were unarmed, and were fatally shot from a distance while in the Gaza Strip itself,” according to a new report by the Israeli group B’Tselem, confirming previous findings by other rights organizations.
“As a general rule, the protectively clad troops sniping at them from other side of the fence were not in any real danger,” B’Tselem added.
In addition to injuries by live fire, 2,000 cases of injury by tear gas inhalation have been recorded, along with hundreds of injuries by rubber-coated metal bullets.
Injuries to 90 protesters – 17 of them children – have resulted in amputation, nearly all of the lower limbs.
Altogether, a staggering 24,000 Palestinians have been injured during the Great March of Return protests – more than one percent of the territory’s population.
Around half of those injured were treated at field clinics at protest sites. The rest were transferred to hospital for treatment.’
