16-year-old Palestinian Teen Said Killed by Live Israeli Fire in Gaza Protest

A 16-year-old Palestinian teenager was killed from live Israeli fire on Friday east of Khan Yunis while participating in a protest close to Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, the coastal enclave's health ministry said. 

According to Gaza's Health Ministry, the boy – identified as Fahd al-Astal –was gravely injured in his stomach and evacuated to a hospital, where his death was determined. 

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Another man was wounded, the ministry said, and his condition is not yet known. The two were taking part in an independent demonstration organized by dozens of young people near the border fence. 

Gaza's Health Ministry reported that another Palestinian man died of his wounds Friday after he was wounded from a blast in Beit Lahya in the northern Strip. The source of the blast in unknown. 

IDF soldiers near the border with Gaza, this month. AMMAR AWAD/Reuters

The ministry later added that the number of casualties had risen to four, but did not provide details regarding the cause of their injuries and their current condition.

The organizing committee of the weekly Gaza border protests, also known as the March of Return, announced Wednesday that they will not take place this Friday for the third consecutive weekend due to the "sensitive security situation and the political crisis in Israel."

According to the committee, which is made up by the different Palestinians factions in Gaza, the decision was meant to "prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from initiating an escalation that could lead to a bloodbath in order to extract himself from the crisis he is in."