GAZA, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian young man was killed on Monday by Israeli army gunfire east of Gaza City, said Palestinian sources.

Local sources and eyewitnesses said that the Israeli army stationed near the separation fence east of Gaza City opened fire on a group of young men who returned to check on their homes a day after Israeli forces withdrew from the Netzarim Corridor -- a strip of land that bisected Gaza from north to south.

Medics told Xinhua that a young man was killed east of the Shuja'iyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, and his body was transferred to the city's Baptist Hospital.

This brings the death toll in Gaza to five in the past 24 hours, after four other Palestinians, including an elderly woman, were killed in two separate incidents north and south of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to the Civil Defense Authority in Gaza.

Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army spokesperson, said that the Israeli forces spotted "suspicious" moving hundreds of meters away from them, and military vehicles were directed and warning shots were fired at these figures, stressing that this operation resulted in several injuries, while the infiltrators fled towards the barrier area.

Adraee renewed his call to the residents of Gaza to abide by the instructions of the forces and not to approach the areas in which they are present.

Meanwhile, the municipalities of Al-Zahra, Al-Mughraqa and Wadi Gaza in the central Gaza Strip announced that their areas have become "disaster-stricken and uninhabitable" due to the massive destruction left by the war.

Nidal Nassar, head of the Zahra Municipality, said in a press conference that during the war, the Israeli army destroyed all buildings and citizens' homes of the three municipalities, demolishing approximately 13,200 housing units, and leading to a total loss of about 1 billion U.S. dollars.

"Reconstruction and improving basic services are a collective responsibility that requires concerted efforts to ensure a decent life and a sustainable future for the affected population," he said, calling on international and humanitarian institutions to urgently intervene to bring in maintenance equipment and machinery to repair water and sewage networks and roads, and restore basic services, including electricity, communications, health and educational facilities. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)