According to the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, Israeli occupation forces have killed 324 Palestinians since the start of the Major Return Marches on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip on March 30, 2018.
The center said in a press release on Saturday that among these martyrs (16) martyrs the occupation authorities continue to detain their bodies, including (3) children.
He added that 211 of the total number of martyrs were martyred during their participation in the return marches, including 46 children and two women, (9) persons with disabilities, (4) paramedics and two journalists.
He noted that 18,085 Palestinians were injured during the return marches, including 4,483 children, 813 women, and 9,080 injured, including 1,929 children and 177 women.
Medical personnel were targeted (264) times, resulting in 212 paramedics being injured, 42 of them repeatedly injured more than once, while journalists were targeted (247) times, resulting in the injury of (173) journalists, 42 of whom were repeatedly injured more than once.
Al-Mezan center pointed out that the occupying forces continued to target participants in peaceful marches, as well as the use of excessive and lethal force in dealing with them, resulting in the death of two children yesterday, and the injury of 93 Palestinians.
He strongly condemned the continued use of excessive force by the occupying forces, which resulted in the death of two children participating in the return marches.
He stressed that the behaviour of the occupying forces involves serious and systematic violations of the rules of international law that may amount to war crimes, particularly in the deliberate killing and injury of civilians exercising their natural right to peaceful assembly and to express their opinions and to protest the extremely harsh conditions they are living in, because of the continuing The Israeli blockade.
He said: "The data on the ground over the past months since the beginning of the return marches to date, has shown that the occupying forces deliberately kill and inflict severe wounds on the peaceful participants, who did not pose any threat to the life or safety of the members of the occupying forces, especially children."
He explained that this is clearly demonstrated by the large numbers of martyrs and injured, where they are targeted in the body, the use of live ammunition, and the tools of differentiation such as tear gas canisters as weapons fired directly towards the bodies of peaceful participants, and the attempt to obstruct the work of medical staff in an ambulance The wounded are targeted despite their commitment to medical neutrality.
The Centre reiterated its repeated call for urgent and effective action by the international community to stop the violations of the occupying forces, to ensure the administration of justice in the occupied Palestinian territories and to provide international protection to the civilian population.
He called for steps to be taken to ensure that the occupation respected its legal obligations under international law, and that all those suspected of violating international law be held accountable.
