The Israeli military is investigating the shooting of a Palestinian paramedic killed while attending to an injured protester in Gaza.
Razan Najjar, 21, was the second female killed at the border of Gaza and Israel since mass protests began there in March. More than 115 people have died in the clashes. Najjar was a volunteer who helped evacuate and treat the wounded during the weeks of violence.
An Associated Press video and other images posted on social media showed Najjar among medics walking toward a wounded man lying on the ground near the fence, with their hands raised. Najjar wore a dark blue headscarf and a white coat with the logo of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, where she volunteered. Her colleague Fares al-Kidra told the AP that as they were leaving, three gunshots rang out, and Najjar fell to the ground.
The Khan Younis hospital said Najjar had a gunshot wound in the chest with an exit wound in the back.
The Palestinian Medical Relief Society said three other first responders were also hit by live fire. “Shooting at medical personnel is a war crime under the Geneva conventions,” the PMRC said in a statement, demanding “an immediate international response to Israeli humanitarian law violations in Gaza.”
Cases such as Najjar’s, “in which civilians are allegedly killed” by Israeli fire, “are thoroughly examined” by an internal military committee, the Army said.
Najjar’s body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag as the funeral procession started Saturday from the hospital and passed near her home in the village of Khuzaa. Ambulances and hundreds of medical workers in white uniforms took part in the funeral procession, which drew thousands of people. Her father carried the white blood-stained medics’ jacket she wore when she was shot, as mourners called for revenge.
She was the eldest of six siblings. In a video posted online, her mother Sabreen, dressed in black, held up the jacket and her daughter’s ID to the camera, saying “This is the weapon of my daughter.”
Izzat Shatat, 23, a volunteer ambulance worker, said he and Najjar were set to announce their engagement at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. He said he was worried and asked her not to go to the border area Friday. “She helped all people. She has never refused to help. She was the first to run toward anybody when he is shot,” he said in tears.
After the funeral, dozens of mourners headed to the fence and started throwing stones at the Israeli soldiers on the other side. The Palestinian Health Ministry said five protesters were wounded by Israeli fire.
The Israeli military said two rockets were fired from Gaza on Saturday. One was shot down and the other landed on the Gaza side of the border fence. The rockets flew days after a cease-fire was reached following an intense attack Tuesday involving militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad that sent dozens of rockets and mortar bombs at Southern Israel .
The violence has boiled since border protests began March 30. Demonstrators demanded the return of Palestinians to land they fled or were expelled from during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, now inside the Jewish state.
