Palestinian teenager dies after being shot by Israeli forces in Gaza

A Palestinian teenager succumbed on Saturday to wounds sustained a day earlier when he was shot by Israeli forces while participating in a demonstration in Gaza, raising the death toll from Friday’s protest to two.

The Gaza health ministry identified the slain boy as 16-year-old Ahmed Misbah Abu Tayour, adding that he was shot east of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip.

A video shared on social media on Saturday purported to show the moment when Abu Tayour was shot on Friday.

Middle East Eye could not independently verify the video, which showed a teen standing dozens of meters away from the fence separating Gaza from Israel. The video showed the boy throwing a stone in the direction of the fence while seemingly too far to hit soldiers, then raising his hands in the air. A man can be heard saying "Abu Tayour, come back", before the boy is shot and falls to the ground.

Abu Tayour is the second teenager to have been fatally shot by Israeli forces east of Rafah on Friday. The other young Palestinian, 17-year-old Bilal Khafaja, had been shot in the chest and died the same day.

According to the Gaza health ministry, Israeli forces have killed 174 Palestinians and wounded another 19,600 since the beginning of the Great March of Return on 30 March.

Five months on, Palestinians in Gaza continue to demonstrate at least once a week, calling for the implementation of the right of return for refugees - who make up 1.3 million of Gaza’s two million inhabitants - and for an end to the 11-year Israeli-led blockade of the small coastal territory.

Protest organisers said that Friday's demonstration was under the slogan: "We are returning despite your wrath and fury, Trump" and in response to the United States pulling its funding from UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

Washington has cut $200m worth of funding to UNRWA and demanded the UN refugee agency redefines how a Palestinian refugee is classified.