(MENAFN- Palestine News Network) GAZA/PNN/
Israeli occupation forces have opened fire on the Palestinians protesting along the fence that separates the besieged Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied territories, killing two and injuring 55 others.
Gaza's Health Ministry announced the casualty toll on Friday. According to the ministry, medical workers in eastern Gaza also suffered from the inhalation of tear gas fired by Israeli forces.
Israeli forces stationed along Gaza-Israel borders opened live fire and fired a barrage of tear gas canisters at Palestinian protesters who gathered on Friday to partake in the Great March of Return protests at the encampments east al-Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, shooting and killing an 18-year-old Palestinian.
A number of medical personnel suffered from tear gas suffocation to the east of al-Bureij and an ambulance belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society was attacked and damaged east of Gaza City after being hit by tear gas and sound bombs.
The latest Israeli killings came in defiance of a United Nations (UN) condemnation of Israel's use of 'unlawful force' against the protesters in Gaza.
Earlier on Friday, the UN's Human Rights Council had denounced Israel's use of 'unlawful lethal and other excessive force' against unarmed Gazan protesters.
On Friday, the Humans Rights Council adopted a resolution on accountability tabled by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The resolution was adopted with 23 votes in favor, eight against, and 15 abstentions. The delegation of one member state was absent.
The text also called for cooperation by the Israeli regime with a preliminary examination that was launched by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2015 into Israeli human rights violations.
The resolution was based on a UN Independent Commission of Inquiry report that found that Israeli forces had committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law that 'may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity' in killing 189 Palestinians and injuring thousands between March 30 and December 31, 2018.
Citing the report's findings, Palestine's Ambassador to the UN Office in Geneva Ibrahim Khraishi stressed that 'the targeting of civilians is a serious matter that should not be condoned.'
Khraishi said 35 children, two journalists, and an unspecified number of medical workers had been among those killed during the period of inquiry.
'There have not been any injuries inflicted on any Israelis, be they military or civilians,' he said.
The Israeli regime's ambassador, Aviva Raz Shechter, said the voting had been marked by 'bias against Israel.'
The protests in Gaza reached their peak on May 14, 2018, the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day, or the Day of Catastrophe, which coincided that year with the United States' relocation of its embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied Jerusalem.
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