A Palestinian journalist shot by Israeli forces during a mass demonstration along the Gaza border has died of his wounds.
Yaser Murtaja, a photographer with the Gaza-based Ain Media agency, was shot in the stomach in Khuza’a in the south of the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Murtaja, 30, was hit despite wearing a blue flak jacket marked with the word “press”, discerning him as a journalist.
Hosam Salem, a photographer at the scene of the incident told Al Jazeera on Friday that he witnessed Murtaja drop to the ground after he was shot by Israeli forces.
“Yaser was filming with his camera next to me when we heard the sound of gunfire,” Salem said. “He just fell on the ground and said, ‘I’ve been shot, I’ve been shot’.”
The Palestinian journalist syndicate said seven other reporters were injured in Friday’s protest, in what they described as “deliberate crimes committed by the Israeli army”.
COURTESY: Al Jazeera
