Israeli Troops Shoot, Injure Palestinian Teen in Gaza

Palestinian emergency services spokesman, Ashraf al-Qudra, said Israeli troops shot a 17-year-old boy, whose name was not immediately released, in the head near a fence separating the blockaded coastal enclave from the Israeli-occupied Palestinian lands on Friday.

An Israeli army spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the shooting, claiming that Israeli forces opened fire after a group of Palestinians had been seen “approaching the fence.”

The incident comes less than a month after a 14-year-old Palestinian boy, identified as Fadi Abu Mandil, was critically wounded by a stray Israeli bullet while studying in his home in the central Gaza Strip.

Abu Mandil has already been transferred to the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, where he is set to undergo surgery. The Palestinian teenager’s family says the boy is unable to walk.

In a separate incident on Friday, a Palestinian fisherman sustained injuries when Israeli naval forces targeted Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Gaza.

Under a ceasefire agreement reached between Israelis and Palestinians in August 2014, Tel Aviv agreed to immediately expand the fishing zone off Gaza’s coast, allowing fishermen to sail as far as six nautical miles off the shore. The agreement also stipulated that Israel would expand the area gradually up to 12 miles.

Palestinian fishermen, however, say that the Israeli navy opens fire before they reach the agreed limit, Press TV reported.

The ceasefire deal put an end to the Israeli regime’s 50-day military offensive against Gaza, which claimed more than 2,100 lives and injured some 11,000 last summer.

Around 4,000 fishermen work in Gaza, with more than half of them living below the poverty line.

The Gaza Strip has been under Israel’s blockade since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.