A 21-year-old Palestinian nurse was killed on Friday, 1 June, as she tried to help a wounded protester at the Gaza border in the clashes that broke out in the Gaza Strip, according to health officials and a witness, reported Reuters.
Gaza Strip is an enclave controlled by Islamist group Hamas and has long been subjected to grinding Israeli and Egyptian embargoes.
Israel said militants had attacked its troops with gunfire and a grenade, while a witness said Razan Al-Najar, the medic volunteer, was shot as she ran toward the fortified border fence after spotting a casualty.
Wearing a white uniform, "she raised her hands high in a clear way, but Israeli soldiers fired and she was hit in the chest," the witness, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.
Although the Israeli Defence Force commented on the incident on Twitter, it was silent on Najar’s killing. Israeli officers had previously said army snipers target only people posing a threat, and the bullets can sometimes run through them or ricochet, hitting bystanders, reported Reuters.
Quoting Gazan medical officials, Reuters reported that at least 100 Palestinians were wounded by army gunfire during Friday's mass demonstrations. In a separate statement, the Israeli military said its troops had acted to disperse "thousands of rioters" at five locations.
There have been no Israeli casualties during the border confrontations, but Israel has reported extensive damage to farmland from firebomb-bearing kites flown over from Gaza.
Many users on social media platforms were outraged over Najar’s death, accusing the Israeli forces of war crimes for targeting medics. Some expressed sorrow over the heroic death of the young nurse.
The surge in violence at the border crescendoed this week to the most intensive shelling exchanges between Israel and Hamas and another Palestinian armed faction since 2014. But the violence, which caused no fatalities, was reined in with Egyptian ceasefire mediation.
In the protests, billed as the "Great March of Return", Palestinians have been calling for the right to return to lands lost to Israel during the 1948 war of its creation. Israel calls them a ploy to breach its border and deflect scrutiny from Hamas' governance problems.
Israel's lethal response has drawn international censure.
Friday's turnout of protestors was less than in previous weeks, but is expected to grow next week as Palestinians mark the anniversary of Israel's capture of the Gaza Strip and West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.
(With inputs from Reuters)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)