Palestinian teenager succumbs to wounds sustained in Gaza rally

The Palestinian Health Ministry has announced 18-year-old Majdi Ghabayen succumbed to injuries he sustained during a protest that was held along the fence separating Gaza from the occupied territories on September 13 in support of al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Popular Resistance Committees and its military wing al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades mourned Ghabayen, noting that he was one of its fighters who was injured in an accidental explosion that took place during the protests.

On September 13, five Palestinians were killed and more than 10 others injured due to the accidental explosion.

Palestinians have been protesting in eastern Gaza since September 13 almost on a daily basis to show support for al-Aqsa Mosque and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, amid rising acts of violence by Israeli forces and settlers.

Israelis have been engaged in provocative intrusions into the Mosque, one of the holiest Muslim sites in the world located in occupied east al-Quds, in recent months in what many believe is a plot to divide the mosque and to turn parts of it into a Jewish temple.

The demonstrators also show their solidarity with Palestinians held in Israeli jails and call for an end to the crippling Israeli siege on Gaza.

Gaza, home to about two million Palestinians, has been under Israeli siege since June 2007. The tight blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

Seven Palestinians have so far been killed and dozens of others injured at the hands of Israeli forces who attacked the protests in eastern Gaza.

Some 700,000 Israelis live in 279 settlements built across the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds since Tel Aviv’s occupation of the territories in 1967.

The international community regards the settlements as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions given that they have been constructed on occupied land.