TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Bassam Sami Safi, 22, who was critically injured east of Khan Younis in the southern parts of the blockaded Palestinian territory, “died this morning,” said Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, on Monday.
He said the young protester had been hit in the head with a tear gas canister on February 22.
Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.
Tensions have been running high near the fence separating Gaza from the occupied territories ever since anti-occupation protest rallies, known as the Great March of Return, began in the Gaza Strip on March 30 last year. More than 260 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. Over 26,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries.
The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14, 2018, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe), which coincided last year with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The Israeli military also regularly conducts airstrikes across the territory against alleged targets belonging to Palestinian resistance movements.