Yaser Murtaja, a photographer with the Gaza-based Ain Media agency, in vest marked ‘PRESS’ was shot in the stomach in Khuza'a in the south of the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The journalism union called for a mass participation in the funeral of Murtaja, and for a protest at the Manara Square in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
They also called for the United Nations to protect journalists and to implement UN Resolution 2222 into concrete steps.
The Gaza Strip is reeling from the bloodiest episode in years after Israeli forces killed more than a dozen people during demonstrations near the frontier. Gazans had gathered as part of a “Great March of Return” protest demanding refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to their ancestral homes in Israel.
It was the start of a six-week sit-in, and was advertised as a peaceful protest, expected to continue until 15 May when Palestinians commemorate the roughly 700,000 people who either fled or were expelled from their homes in the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. As Israeli snipers opened fire, it quickly turned into bloody chaos.
