GAZA 7 Apr (ANA) - 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", indicating he was 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".

 

Meanwhile Palestinian health ministry officials say ten Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during fresh protests on Gaza's border with Israel.

 The Israeli military said troops had opened fire when people attempted to breach the fence on the frontier.

 

The protesters are demanding that refugees be allowed to return to ancestral lands that are now in Israel.

 

But Israel says the militant group Hamas, which dominates Gaza, is staging the rallies in order to launch attacks.

 

UN Secretary General António Guterres called on all parties to "avoid confrontation and exercise maximum restraint" after 16 people were killed and hundreds of others wounded during similar unrest a week ago.(ANA)

FA/ANA/7 April 2018----