Palestinians demonstrate in Gaza against Israel's blockade

Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday against a tight Israeli blockade on the coastal enclave for more than ten years.

The demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and banners in both Arabic and English calling on Israel to end the blockade that was a main cause for the deterioration of the living condition in Gaza.

"End the blockade, the blockade is the crime of the century," said the banners held by the demonstrators in the streets of Gaza City. The demonstration was organized by the Gaza Employees Union.

Sohail al-Hindi, chairman of the union told Xinhua that the demonstration was organized after the daily living situation in the Gaza Strip has become unbearable, where then populations' life is in real danger.

He warned that the demonstration is a first action against the Israeli blockade, adding that next steps will focus of taking the employees wives and children and peacefully demonstrate close to the borders between the Gaza Strip and Israel,

The Palestinian official also called on both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Party and Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip to end more than ten years of internal division that negatively influenced Gaza life.

Tahrir al-Masri, one of the participants in the demonstration said that the situation in the Gaza Strip is horrible and the daily life conditions are very difficult and very risky on the lives of the populations.

Israel imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2007 and considered the coastal enclave a hostile entity right after Hamas movement had violently seized control of the territory and routed Abbas security forces.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian young man on Tuesday in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to medical Palestinian sources and Israeli radio.

The Palestinian sources said that Israeli soldiers opened fire and killed Ra'fat al-Herbawi as he drove his car near the crossroad that leads to an Israeli settlement close to the city of Hebron.

However, Israeli radio reported that al-Herbawi drove his car over a group of Israelis, who stood at the crossroad, adding that two Israelis were injured, while security forces stationed at the crossroad opened fire and killed him.

The medical sources said that the Israeli security forces prevented the Palestinian medical rescue teams and the ambulances to reach the young man's car, and held his body.

On Sunday, a Palestinian was killed and another was arrested when an Israeli army force stormed a village north of the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Since October 2015, a wave of tension between Israel and the Palestinians has been flaring, leaving 382 Palestinians and two Jordanians dead in the West Bank and Gaza and 48 Israelis.