19 Palestinians martyred in August: Research center

By Qays Abu Samra and Hacer Baser

RAMALLAH, Palestine

A total of 19 Palestinians were martyred by Israeli troops during the month of August, a PLO-affiliated research center said Friday.

According to the Abdullah al-Hourani Center for Studies and Documentation, Israeli forces typically used teargas, rubber bullets and heavy ammunition to disperse Palestinian demonstrators near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone.

In a Friday statement, the center said that 17 Palestinians had been killed near the buffer zone this month, while two more had been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

At least 1,600 protesters were injured over the same period, the statement added, while roughly 400 others had been temporarily detained by Israeli authorities.

Since the demonstrations in Gaza began on Mar. 30, more than 170 Palestinians have been killed -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli army troops deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.

Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.