News / Palestine

Israeli strike kills two Palestinians in Gaza Strip

Tuesday, 18 September 2018 7:24 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 18 September 2018 10:16 AM ]

A Palestinian woman is evacuated after inhaling tear gas during a protest calling for lifting the Israeli blockade on Gaza on September 17, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

At least two Palestinians have lost their lives in a fresh Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip amid renewed tensions in the blockaded coastal sliver.

Gaza medics said on Tuesday that the Palestinians had been killed in the overnight strike east of the town of Qarara near the fence separating the sliver from the Israeli-occupied territories.

A Gaza Health Ministry spokesman also said that the bodies of the victims had been taken to a hospital without referring to their identities.

The Israeli military claimed in a statement late on Monday that the victims had “approached the fence in the southern Gaza Strip in a suspicious manner and planted a suspicious object along it.”

Earlier on Monday, thousands of Palestinians had gathered on Gaza’s Mediterranean beach to protest Israel’s inhumane siege on the territory.

Some activists sailed in fishing boats near the Gaza fence, flying the Palestinian national flag.

Israeli gunboats shot around the Palestinian boats while the regime’s troops fired tear gas and live rounds at the demonstrators.

The clashes left 26 protesters wounded.

A demonstrator called on the international community “to stand with us (the Gazans) in the Palestinian cause for breaking the siege.”

Palestinians protest to demand lifting the Israeli blockade on Gaza on September 17, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

“We will continue in the naval demonstration. We'll come to the sea every Monday and we go east Jabalia every Friday. We will continue in our demonstration to deliver it to the whole world," another Gaza protester said.

The Gaza Strip has been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2007 and witnessed three wars since 2008. The Tel Aviv regime carries out regular attacks on Gaza under the pretext of hitting positions belonging to the Hamas resistance movement.

The coastal sliver has also witnessed a fresh wave of tensions since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests demanding the right to return for the Palestinians driven out of their homeland.

Some 180 Palestinians have been killed and over 20,000 others wounded in renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry.

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