GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed a Palestinian nurse on Friday as she tried to help a wounded protester at the Gaza border, according to health officials and a witness, while Israel said militants had attacked its troops with gunfire and a grenade. A colleague of Palestinian nurse Razan Al-Najar, who was killed during a protest at the Israel-Gaza border, reacts at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip June 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa Razan Al-Najar’s death brought to 119 the number of Palestinians killed in weekly demonstrations launched on March 30 in the Gaza Strip, an enclave controlled by the Islamist group Hamas and long subject to grinding Israeli and Egyptian embargoes. Najar, a 21-year-old volunteer medic, was shot as she ran toward the fortified border fence, east of the south Gaza city of Khan Younis, in a bid to reach a casualty, a witness said. 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. An Israeli military spokeswoman had no immediate comment on Najar’s killing. Israeli officers have previously said that army snipers target only people posing a threat, but that the bullets can sometimes run through them or ricochet, hitting bystanders. Gazan medical officials said 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. Slideshow ( 10 images ) It said that “an IDF (Israel Defence Forces) vehicle was fired upon and a suspect was identified crossing the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip and planting a grenade which exploded as he returned to the Strip”. 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. 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 a 2014. But the violence, which caused no fatalities, was reined in with Egyptian ceasefire mediation. [L5N1T11CG] 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. Israel quit Gaza in 2005, but has elsewhere deepened settlements on occupied land. The demonstrations come at a time of growing frustration over the prospects for an independent Palestinian state or even a revival of peace talks, stalled since 2014. At her house in Khan Younis, Najar’s mother collapsed in grief as she was handed her daughter’s blood-stained uniform. A statement from Gaza’s Health Ministry mourned Najar as a “martyr”. Interviewed by Reuters interview in April, she said she would see the border protests through until their end. “I am returning and not retreating,” Najar’s last Facebook post said. “Hit me with your bullets. I am not afraid.”<doc-sep>Gaza City: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian nurse on Friday as she tried to help a wounded protester at the Gaza border, according to health officials and a witness, while Israel said militants had attacked its troops with gunfire and a grenade. Palestinian nurse Razan al Najar was fatally shot trying to retrieve an injured protester. Credit:Twitter Razan Al-Najar's death brought to 119 the number of Palestinians killed in weekly demonstrations launched on March 30 in the Gaza Strip, an enclave controlled by the Islamist group Hamas and long subject to grinding Israeli and Egyptian embargoes. Najar, a 21-year-old volunteer medic, was shot as she ran toward the fortified border fence, east of the south Gaza city of Khan Younis, in a bid to reach a casualty, a witness said.<doc-sep>Correction: A previous version of this story misattributed a quote about details regarding Razan al-Najjar's death. It was Rami Abu Jazzar who described the circumstances under which she was killed. (CNN) — Razan al-Najjar is known to the world as the 21-year-old Palestinian medical nurse shot dead by an Israeli sniper during protests on Friday. To her parents she was a beloved daughter who died just a few hundred meters from her home in Khan Younis, close to the fence that separates Gaza from Israel. On Saturday, thousands took to the streets of the Gazan city for the young medic’s funeral. The streets and lampposts surrounding Razan’s home are now adorned with her smiling image. Her father, Ashraf al-Najjar, takes CNN up three flights of stairs and into their apartment. The rest of the family, their small home now filled with mourners, sit in disbelief. Dominique Van Heerden/CNN Posters of Razan al-Najjar adorn the streets of her neighborhood in Khan Younis, Gaza. Razan’s mother, Sabreen, dressed entirely in black, clutches her daughter’s blood-soaked medical vest. She tells us Razan had been volunteering since the beginning of the protests, working without pay. “I was afraid for her, but Razan told us she wasn’t afraid, she felt obliged to help and was clearly wearing a medical vest,” she says. Sabreen says her daughter “may have been small, but she was strong, and her only weapon was her medical vest.” Ashraf sits alongside his wife in a quiet state of denial, every so often nodding in agreement. It’s a vest Razan thought would protect her. “I’m protected by my vest,” she would tell her mother and father before heading out to help, “God is with me, I am not afraid.” Dominique Van Heerden/CNN Ashraf and Sabreen al-Najjar display their daughter's bloodied medical vest. Razan al-Najjar’s death comes after weeks of Palestinian protests, known as the Great March of Return, during which more than 100 Palestinian protesters have been killed by Israeli fire. She is the second medical worker to die. More than 200 others have been injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military says it is investigating her death, adding, “the IDF constantly works to draw operational lessons and reduce the number of casualties in the area of the Gaza Strip security fence.” “I want justice for Razan,” Sabreen says as she pulls a wad of medical gauze from the pocket of her daughter’s vest. “Here is her weapon! I want the world to know this is the weapon of Razan al-Najjar — and is this the ID of a terrorist?” she asks rhetorically, holding up her daughter’s medical ID that she was wearing at the time of her death. Dominique Van Heerden/CNN Razan al-Najjar's medical ID. In Gaza City’s blazing midday sun a group of medical volunteers gathered outside a United Nations office Sunday in protest of what they say is the targeting of medics by the Israeli military. The IDF denies it targets medical workers. At the gathering CNN spoke to Rami Abu Jazzar, who was volunteering alongside Razan al-Najjar on Friday. He says he too was shot that day, in the left knee, and is here on crutches. He says it’s important the world knows what happened. Dominique Van Heerden/CNN Palestinian medical workers protest outside a UN office in Gaza City. Jazzar says Friday was like any other day as he, Razan and the group of medical volunteers from the Palestinian Medical Relief Society gathered to tend to wounded protesters. He says Razan arrived early that day. “When she arrived on Friday she told her friends, ‘I love working here with everyone.’ She smiled all day, it was a beautiful day working with her.” Cellphone video filmed by the volunteers and shared with CNN shows the medics, including Razan, slowly moving forward, their medical ID badges displayed and their hands in the air. They tell us this video was filmed 10 minutes before Razan was shot. “People were suffering from the [tear] gas,” Jazzar explains. “A man was right near the fence and was calling out, ‘Come help me, help me’. He was close to the fence. Razan went to help him.” That’s when she was shot, he says. Dominique Van Heerden/CNN Rami Abu Jazzar, middle, and Rasha Qudeih, right, stand alongside other medical workers protesting outside a UN office in Gaza City. Another volunteer working that day tells us she saw the sniper and warned the others to be careful. “Some people on social media say Razan was shot by a woman sniper. She was not. I saw the sniper – it was a man,” Rasha Qudeih tells us. Razan’s friends and fellow medical volunteers say they’ll remember her for her bravery, and will more than ever continue their work.<doc-sep>The medical team that included Palestinian medic who was shot dead on Friday approached the Gaza border fence with their arms raised, Palestinian officials said. Authorities in Gaza released a video that it said showed the team, wearing white, walking towards the fence before Razan Najjar, 21, was shot. Dr. Yossef Abu Arrish, the head of Gaza’s health services, said that “the paramedics approached the border with raised hands and while they were in their white uniforms and still the army fired tear gas grenades at them.” He said that one of the grenades hit one of the medic’s legs. A friend of Najjar said the team returned to the border to take care of the wounded – including their fellow medics – when they came under fire. It was at this point, they claim, that Najjar was critically wounded from a gunshot wound to the chest. In a video released by the health ministry and allegedly recorded minutes before Najjar was shot, the team of paramedics can be seen approaching the border in white coats and with their hands in the air. Najjar was also photographed wearing a white coat during attempts to resuscitate her.<doc-sep>
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