Israeli army kills Palestinian nurse in Gaza border protest - medics

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

 

Colleagues of Palestinian nurse Razan Al-Najar, who was killed during a protest at the Israel-Gaza border, react at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip June 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

 

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.

 

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.

 

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."

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-06-02

Can't get any more pathetic than this!

I agree when are those Palistenians going to learn......

10 minutes ago, NickJ said:

I agree when are those Palistenians going to learn......

Probably no sooner then you with your spelling.  FYI it is Palestinian.

 

However your comment regarding a murdered nurse trying to help a victim is out of order and you display a disgusting attitude.  Nurses ethics are such that they have often put their lives in danger all over the world past and present to help people who have been injured.  Clearly something you have no apprehension or concern about.

Israel is NOT the Palestinas enemy, Hamas is, Hamas that cynical send ten of thousands of people to their imminent danger of death and injuries all in the false hope of ' returning home' What is there to not understand the directive to not come near the fence? because if you will, you'll get shot, but still, they do it with incendiary devices and grenades, how many more Palestinians have to die before Hamas realise that they're engaging in a stupid and dangerous gambit here?.....

 

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

Israel is NOT the Palestinas enemy, Hamas is, Hamas that cynical send ten of thousands of people to their imminent danger of death and injuries all in the false hope of ' returning home'

What is there to not understand the directive to not come near the fence? because if you will, you'll get shot, but still, they do it with incendiary devices and grenades,

how many more Palestinians have to die before Hamas realise that they're engaging in a stupid and dangerous gambit here?.....

 

I think by interpreting your jumbled post, that it is OK to murder an unarmed nurse, in uniform, with her hands raised in the air as she ran towards the fence to render assistance to someone who was injured.

Are you telling everyone that the IDF snipers' vision is so impaired that they can not identify an unarmed nurse?

11 minutes ago, Elfin said:

I think by interpreting your jumbled post, that it is OK to murder an unarmed nurse, in uniform, with her hands raised in the air as she ran towards the fence to render assistance to someone who was injured.

Are you telling everyone that the IDF snipers' vision is so impaired that they can not identify an unarmed nurse?

So, you were there and saw this happen as described? I am impressed.

Edited June 2, 20188 yr by DoctorG
typo

2 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

So, you were there and saw this happen as described? I am impressed.

No, but I can read.

24 minutes ago, Elfin said:

Israel is NOT the Palestinas enemy, Hamas is,

I think that the IDF sniper who shot her dead is her enemy. Don't deflect the blame.

Edited June 2, 20188 yr by Elfin

2 hours ago, ezzra said:

What is there to not understand the directive to not come near the fence? because if you will, you'll get shot,

Even when a nurse , dressed as a nurse , unarmed and showing this by holding her hands up , runs towards a victim to help ... she deserves to get shot dead ?

Come on , this is a new low and a completly inhuman thing to do !

It really is about time to feel ashamed , Israel ...!

2 hours ago, ezzra said:

Israel is NOT the Palestinas enemy, Hamas is, Hamas that cynical send ten of thousands of people to their imminent danger of death and injuries all in the false hope of ' returning home' What is there to not understand the directive to not come near the fence? because if you will, you'll get shot, but still, they do it with incendiary devices and grenades, how many more Palestinians have to die before Hamas realise that they're engaging in a stupid and dangerous gambit here?.....

 

Hamas can be legitimately blamed for a lot of things, but not this.

Give one example - anywhere in the world - where people are being shot dead for approaching a border fence. 

The vast majority of those killed didn't have "incendiary devices and grenades", they were shot down in cold blood.

On this issue the whole world is against the US and Israel... and rightly so.

1 hour ago, Elfin said:

No, but I can read.

Yes we can all read lies put out by the likes of hamas .

A bit of history.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/07/30/how-israel-helped-create-hamas/?utm_term=.f2d75436242e

3 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

Yes we can all read lies put out by the likes of hamas .

I read widely-not just what appears on TV

13 minutes ago, Elfin said:

I read widely-not just what appears on TV

These days i believe very little that i read or see on tv ,every news organisation has its own agenda and twists things their way ,whether it be left or right .most lie .all bend the truth .

Isreal is protecting there borders  Hamas wants Israel to look bad but Hamas really just wants to kill all of he Jewish People Just my two cents 

Ok, here's another 'jumbled' post... and to all the bleeding hearts here, just because a person is wearing a uniform of a nurse or travel in ambulance it doesn't that it's real as there have been many, many instances where terrorists, and yes, women too, donned red cross, green crescent and similar emergency services uniforms in an ambulance that turned out to be as an acts of terror,

AGAIN!!! what you can read from sunny Thailand is no way what is really going on over there, reading propaganda and one sided articles....

Edited June 2, 20188 yr by ezzra

3 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

Can't get any more pathetic than this!

You mean in respect to the biased claim>

First she is described as a "nurse". Then she is  described as a 21-year-old volunteer medic. Dressing in white does not a nurse make. What exactly is a medic?  According to the biased reports, the attackers putting a band aid on someone is a "medic".

In this case there is no evidence to support the claim that she was targeted. What is known is that an attacker through a grenade at the Israelis and gunfire was exchanged. The deceased my have been hit by collateral fire. Or she may have  been hit by arab attacker fire as is often the case. I also know that  it was common for attackers to include women and children who run up and explode or who throw grenades.

 

Calling the deceased a nurse is a lie because she wasn't a nurse.  Claiming that she was innocent without any evidence to support the claim that it was Israeli  gunfire that  killed her intentionally is deceitful.

 

Too bad she put herself in a situation where she could be injured. Here's an idea, why not stop attacking Israel and building atack tunnels with cement intended to build homes, and building missiles and mortars with steel intended for infrastructure, and putting  munition storage dumps in the basements of schools and hospitals,  and maybe Egypt and israel won't be so tough at the border crossings.

17 minutes ago, ezzra said:

there have been many, many instances where terrorists, and yes, women too, donned red cross, green crescent and similar emergency services uniforms in an ambulance that turned out to be as an acts of terror,

Pure propaganda! In the 2014 incursion, IDF forces would not allow ambulances or nurses/doctors to tend to injured civilians for 3 days in some instances. The reasons? Make the Palestinians suffer, or hoping they would die waiting. Sometimes the injured would be attacked by stray dogs.........just inhumane.

But shooting this nurse has opinions about Israel at a new low.

 

 

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Israel is NOT the Palestinas enemy, Hamas is, Hamas that cynical send ten of thousands of people to their imminent danger of death and injuries all in the false hope of ' returning home' What is there to not understand the directive to not come near the fence? because if you will, you'll get shot, but still, they do it with incendiary devices and grenades, how many more Palestinians have to die before Hamas realise that they're engaging in a stupid and dangerous gambit here?.....

 

 

Israel and the Palestinians are enemies.

That the Hamas leadership acts in ways which aren't in their people's best interests doesn't change that.

49 minutes ago, geriatrickid said:

Calling the deceased a nurse is a lie because she wasn't a nurse. 

Where is your evidence for this? Do you want the Palestinians to just give in, lay down and die? They are different to you and have every right to protest and resist!

2 hours ago, Elfin said:

No, but I can read.

 

More to do with comprehension skills, and applying some reasoned criticism.

 

The account of her death, as presented in the OP,  is based on an anonymous witness report. I'll venture your readiness to accept such as gospel is more to do with standing bias.

 

To be clear, I'm pretty sure she was shot by the IDF. Things going down exactly as described is something that can be questioned.

 

It wouldn't be the first time the IDF denies claims it shot someone it shouldn't have. It wouldn't be a first if it turns out facts don't match the Palestinian narrative.

1 hour ago, DeaconJohn said:

Hamas can be legitimately blamed for a lot of things, but not this.

Give one example - anywhere in the world - where people are being shot dead for approaching a border fence. 

The vast majority of those killed didn't have "incendiary devices and grenades", they were shot down in cold blood.

On this issue the whole world is against the US and Israel... and rightly so.

 

I doubt that the Palestinian protests could be described as people "approaching the fence", unless one was trying real hard to erase uncomfortable context and facts.

 

At least half of those killed were Hamas personnel. Some of which (or many, depending on which reports are followed) were engaged in violent actions against the IDF or trying to sabotage the border fence.

 

And that you claim "the whole world" doesn't actually make it factual or true.

Edited June 2, 20188 yr by Morch

55 minutes ago, Elfin said:

Pure propaganda! In the 2014 incursion, IDF forces would not allow ambulances or nurses/doctors to tend to injured civilians for 3 days in some instances. The reasons? Make the Palestinians suffer, or hoping they would die waiting. Sometimes the injured would be attacked by stray dogs.........just inhumane.

But shooting this nurse has opinions about Israel at a new low.

 

 

 

No, it's not "pure propaganda", but fact. What  is "pure propaganda", though, is the attribution of motives you often dabble in.

 

Hamas tried to hijack ambulances during Gaza war

https://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hamas-tried-to-hijack-ambulances-during-gaza-war/2009/01/25/1232818246374.html

 

IDF demands answers after Palestinian ambulance filmed carting protesters

https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/IDF-demands-answers-after-Palestinian-ambulance-filmed-carting-protesters-517772

 

Fighting terrorists who move around in ambulances

https://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Analysis-Fighting-terrorists-who-move-around-in-ambulances-363498

 

Why Hamas stores its weapons inside hospitals, mosques and schools

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/31/why-hamas-stores-its-weapons-inside-hospitals-mosques-and-schools/?utm_term=.83d169ec7a8c

 

Cancer Patient Caught Smuggling Explosives for Hamas, Shin Bet Says

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/cancer-patient-caught-smuggling-explosives-for-hamas-shin-bet-says-1.5462792

 

 

Edited June 2, 20188 yr by Morch

27 minutes ago, Elfin said:

Where is your evidence for this? Do you want the Palestinians to just give in, lay down and die? They are different to you and have every right to protest and resist!

 

And where is the evidence that the Hamas version is correct? Or that the anonymous accounts reported are true? That you take them as such doesn't mean a whole lot.

 

There's quite a range of options between making bad choices, over and over again (often involving pointless violence) and "just give in, lay down and die" (which no one but yourself actually offered).

 

The Palestinians do have every right to protest and resist, This does not amount to some carte blanche giving license for whatever (especially when it comes to violence). Nor does it imply that Israel is required to put up with such actions without response.

 

Morch, I appreciate that you try to present a balanced view sometimes, but your sources for "weapons in the ambulance" stories appear to be all pro-Israeli publications.

5 hours ago, ezzra said:

Israel is NOT the Palestinas enemy, Hamas is, Hamas that cynical send ten of thousands of people to their imminent danger of death and injuries all in the false hope of ' returning home' What is there to not understand the directive to not come near the fence? because if you will, you'll get shot, but still, they do it with incendiary devices and grenades, how many more Palestinians have to die before Hamas realise that they're engaging in a stupid and dangerous gambit here?.....

 

It's intentional done for PR purposes. They're willing to send their own people to their deaths just for good PR.

Ok , just checked the term " Nazi " ...it seems this term is exclusivley reserved for the german Nazis from WW II .

So that was not the right word to use than ... so what about Israels strong Nationalism that is disrespecting human lifes and rights ... does that sound better to you >>>?

Posts containing offensive hyperbolic Nazi generalizations have been removed as well as the replies. 

 

A post containing an unsubstantiated claim has been removed as well. 

To better understand the 'war' I keep on reading the posts concerning the conflict on this forum.

Every time when I am through I feel sick and angered.