Gaza City, October 11 (RHC)-- Gaza’s Health Ministry says 49 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli forces during the weekly anti-occupation protests in the besieged coastal enclave.    Ashraf al-Qedra, the spokesman for the ministry, said in a Tweet that 22 children were among those wounded during the Friday’s protests in eastern Gaza.  He noted that 21 of the total number of injuries were caused by live ammunition used by Israeli troops.  

Palestinians have been holding weekly rallies in Gaza since last year to protest the siege on the enclave and stress the right to return of the Palestinians who have been externally displaced by Israeli aggression since 1948.

At least 307 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces ever since the anti-occupation protest rallies began in the Gaza Strip on March 30, 2018. Over 18,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries.

In March, a United Nations (UN) fact-finding mission found that Israeli forces committed rights violations during their crackdown against the Palestinian protesters in Gaza that may amount to war crimes.

Gaza has been under Israeli siege since June 2007, which has caused a decline in living standards.   Israel has also launched three major wars against the enclave since 2008, killing thousands of Gazans each time and shattering the impoverished territory’s already poor infrastructure.