Israeli forces wound Maltese woman, 3 Palestinians

Gaza City, April 25: Israeli troops shot and wounded three Palestinians and a Maltese woman in the Gaza Strip on Saturday during a protest near the border with Israel, witnesses and medical sources said.

The four were shot after they entered a no-go zone declared by Israel on the Gaza side of the frontier.

The 300-metre (yard) deep area was declared after some 150 persons began a demonstration to oppose an Israeli ban on Gaza farmers approaching the border.

The Maltese woman, said to have been shot in the legs, was identified as Bianca Zimmit, 28, a member of a pro-Palestinian rights group, the International Solidarity Movement.

The ISM said Zimmit was wounded as she filmed the demonstration, east of the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, some 100 metres from the border.

Besieged Gaza is still considered to be under illegal Israeli occupation.

—Agencies