The medical team that included Palestinian medic who was shot dead on Friday had approached the Gaza border fence with their arms raised shortly before the shooting, authorities in Gaza said Saturday. Authorities in Gaza released a video that it said showed the team, wearing white, walking towards the fence before Razan al-Najjar, 21, was shot. To really understand Israel and the Middle East - subscribe to Haaretz 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." A New York Times interview with Razan Najjar. Credit: New York Times 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. Najjar gave an interview in which she took pride in the aid she was providing for the wounded, Palestinian officials said. An interview with Razan Najjar on Palestinian satellite channel Al-Quds TV. Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces said that it would probe her death, saying in a statement that "cases in which there are claims that a civilian was killed by IDF fire we investigate thoroughly and that is what will be done in regards to these claims." The army said it would use the same "operational probe" used in previous cases. Also Saturday, the UN envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, said in a tweet that "Medical workers are #NotATarget!" and that "Israel needs to calibrate its use of force and Hamas need to prevent incidents at the fence." Tweet by Nickolay Mladenov. Credit: Twitter Thousands of Palestinians attended Najjar's funeral in a cemetery in Khan Yunis. >> Gaza Flare-up: How One Israeli Tank Shell Almost Started an All-out War | Analysis << Speaking at a convention in Wadi Ara on Saturday, Israeli-Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi (Joint List) called Najjar's killing "a heinous war crime," adding that the U.S. and its envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, who vetoed the Security Council resolution for "international protection" for the Palestinians, bear responsibility for Najjar's death. Another 40 people were reported wounded during Friday's protest along the Gaza border. Since the confrontations along the border of May 14, the number of participants has fallen dramatically, and Hamas and other Palestinian factions have set June 5 as the date for a march by tens of thousands to mark 51 years since the Six-Day War, known as Nakba Day by the Palestinians. The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has updated its figures and says 118 people have died in the marches, after a 23-year-old Gaza resident succumbed Thursday to the gunshot wounds he suffered on May 14.<doc-sep>Hamas called the protests this spring the Great March of Return. The demonstrations intended to shed light on the Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza, and also call for “right of return” for Palestinian refugees displaced during the 1948 war. On May 14, the same day the United States opened its controversial new embassy in Jerusalem, tens of thousands of Palestinians demonstrated in the Gaza Strip.<doc-sep>Today’s news from Gaza was especially disturbing. Israeli snipers shot 40 protesters and killed one of them: Razan al-Najjar, a 21-year-old volunteer medic. She was wearing a white coat when she was shot, news accounts say, and one report says she was attempting to tend a wounded protester. Update: Her funeral was Saturday June 2, and thousands attended. The Guardian: According to health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra, Najjar was a volunteer with the ministry, wearing the white uniform of a medic when she was shot in the chest. CNN has the story. Iyad Abuheweila of the New York Times reported the killing by twitter: Razan Al Najjar 21, a volunteer paramedic, was shot dead by IDF in eastern Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip according to Gaza Health Ministry spokesman. Middle East Eye reports: al-Najjar “has been photographed on numerous occasions helping Palestinians injured by Israeli fire during protests.” Palestine Live has tweeted this photo of al Najjar that it says was taken shortly before she was killed: Asaf Ronel of Haaretz: A paramedic who was with Razan al-Najjar told journalists in # Gaza that the 21-year-old nurse tried to reach a protester wounded near the # GazaFence. “I told her it is dangerous but she said she’s not afraid to die & wants to help the wounded” Ronel says al-Najjar was not likely targeted when she was killed: It’s unlikely that a sniper deliberately killed Razan al-Najjar. Her death is an expected result of repeated use of live fire by Israeli soldiers to prevent medical care in # Gaza (in addition to illegal & immoral use of snipers against unarmed protesters) The New York Times has published a superb video interview of al-Najjar from a month ago, highlighting her strength and commitment. She works not for money but for God, she says. The piece is by Yousur Al-Hlou, Iyad Abuheweila and Neil Collier. The Times also published this article on the killing. (James North had challenged the New York Times: “An # NYTimes reporter is in # Gaza, and and he tweeted out that # Israel‘s snipers murdered a 21-year-old nurse, # RazanAlNajjar. Will his bosses in New York publish this in their newspaper? (If a rocket from Gaza killed an # Israeli nurse, we would read all about it. )”) B’Tselem yesterday issued a report on the open-fire policy at the Gaza fence that describes the risks that medical personnel experience, even though they are clearly marked. From researcher Khaled al-Azayzeh, on a May 2 incident: I advanced toward the spot with the first-aid team. The soldiers fired live rounds near us to warn us not to approach. One of the women on the emergency team put up her hands to set the soldiers minds at ease and let them know we were a medical crew, and we kept advancing, but the shooting continued near us and over our heads. The soldiers also fired teargas canisters behind us. Despite this, we managed to get to the two guys. I found that the guy who was injured is a relative of mine, Muhammad Musbah. He had been hit by a live bullet in the right leg and was lying on his back. His leg was completely torn up below the knee and he was bleeding badly. I bandaged the wound with medical gauze and Wasim Musbah, who was with us, brought the stick the Palestinian flag had been tied to, broke it in two and tied it to the injured leg as a splint for support. The entire time we were caring for him, the soldiers kept firing above us. A few young guys moved forward till they reached us, and together we lifted Muhammad and got him away from the barbed wire fence and on to a tuk-tuk, because there was no ambulance there. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society issued a statement calling for an international investigation of Najjar’s killing and the shooting of three other medics yesterday. We demand an immediate international response to Israeli humanitarian law violations in Gaza. We call on our international friends and partners to publicly condemn Razan’s killing and to demand that Israel be held accountable for its crimes under international law. We grieve with her family and our colleagues in Gaza during this tragic time. We ask our partners who are in the country to please join us tomorrow at 12pm at the Manara circle in Ramallah to honor Razan’s memory and demand an end to the bloody oppression of Gaza. Thanks to Scott Roth.<doc-sep>More than 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces amid protests in support of the declared right of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel.<doc-sep>
A 21-year-old Palestinian paramedic was shot dead in the chest by Israeli military Friday in the Gaza Strip while wearing the white uniform of a medic, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Thousands of Palestinians thronged to the Israeli border in the eastern Gaza Strip, marking the 10th weekly protest aimed at drawing attention to the crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade and demanding the right for Palestinians to return to former homes in what's now Israel. The health ministry said Razan Najjar, 21, died of a gunshot wound to the chest, and over 100 people were injured, 40 of them by live fire. Witnesses said Najjar was a volunteer paramedic who took part in treating wounded protesters during the weekly demonstrations. The crowds gathered at five tent camps near the border fence separating Israel and the Gaza. Dozens of youths approached the fence, burning tires and hurling rocks at Israeli troops behind the fence. The Israeli military said in a statement that Palestinian protesters attacked the border fence during Friday's protests and troops responded with "riot dispersal means." The army also said that a military vehicle came under fire, and a grenade planted on the fence exploded. No Israeli troops were injured. Israel fired dozens of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip after a mortar attack from Gaza, the largest operation in the Gaza Strip since a 2014 war with Hamas. Egyptian mediation efforts successfully restored the cease-fire that has largely held since the end of a 50-day war between Israel and Gaza resistance groups in 2014. Friday's protests were the latest in a series of demonstrations orchestrated weekly by Hamas since late March. Tensions soared on May 14, when the U.S. relocated its embassy to contested Jerusalem. Over 60 Palestinians were killed that day. Since March 30, Israeli fire has killed more than 115 Palestinians, most of them unarmed protesters, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Organizers of the protests vowed to continue them until the blockade — imposed after Hamas forcibly seized control of the coastal enclave in 2007 after winning legislative elections a year earlier — is lifted. They also called for a high turnout for Tuesday's protests, which mark the 51st anniversary of the Six Day War, in which Israel captured Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Demonstrators at Friday's protests waved Kuwaiti flags to thank the Persian Gulf state for blocking a U.S. bid to condemn Gaza rocket fire at the Security Council earlier this week. Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas official who joined the protest east of Gaza City, praised the turnout despite Ramadan. "Those who bet on dwindling participation are proved to be wrong today," he told reporters.