. Photo credit: WAFA. Palestinians protest east of Khan Younis in Gaza, May 14, 2018
Israeli forces killed two Palestinian protesters east of al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday, May 15, 2018. The first killed by live fire was 51 year old Ahmad Gharab. The Palestinian Health Ministry has not yet released the name of the second protester killed.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza also climbed overnight as some of the critically injured succumbed to their wounds. Early on Tuesday, 8-month-old Laila Anwar Ghandour died after being hospitalized for excessive tear gas inhalation on Monday. She is the seventh child killed by Israeli soldiers on Monday. Omar Abu Fool, 30 years old, also died on Tuesday from critical injuries he sustained during protests on Monday.
These deaths bring the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers to 63 since the start of this week. In total, since the Great Return March began on March 30, 2018, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 103 Palestinians.
Another 160 Palestinians were wounded on Tuesday in Gaza as thousands protested along the Israeli wall that besieges the Gaza Strip. Dozens of Palestinians in the West Bank also sustained injuries during protests, mostly due to tear gas inhalation. One Palestinian youth was critically injured in al-Birah after Israeli forces shot him with live fire in the back. Three other protesters were shot with live fire in the West Bank on Tuesday – one in Bethlehem and two in Hebron. Since the beginning of the Great March of Return movement, Israeli soldiers have injured thousands of Palestinians, including nearly 3,000 on Monday alone.
Overnight on Tuesday, Israeli soldiers also arrested 38 Palestinians during overnight raids across the occupied West Bank. At least 20 Palestinians were detained from Jerusalem, eight from Nablus, five from Bethlehem, four from Hebron and one from Jenin.
In addition to protesting, Palestinians observed a general strike across the territories on Tuesday in honor of the 59 people killed the day before and to commemorate 70 years since the 1948 Nakba. Nakba Day, which falls each year on May 15, commemorates when Zionist militias expelled over 750,000 Palestinians during the creation of the Israeli state in 1948.