Gazan youth dies of injuries sustained near buffer zone

A Palestinian youth died of his wounds Friday after having been shot and injured earlier by Israeli army troops while taking part in ongoing rallies along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone, according to a Palestinian medical source.

Fayez Hamdouneh Hamadeh, 20, succumbed to gunshot injuries he sustained in mid-July while taking part in demonstrations east of the Jabalia refugee camp, Ayman as-Sahbani, head of the emergency ward at Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, told Anadolu Agency.

Since the rallies began on March 30, more than 170 Palestinians have been martyred -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli army troops deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.

Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its more than million inhabitants of many basic commodities.