On Sunday evening, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the death of a young man who was injured in an explosion in Gaza City on September 13, 2023, bringing the number of deaths to six.
The Health Ministry said the young man, Majdi Ehab Ghabayen, 18, from the Al-Atatra area in Beita Lahia in northern Gaza, has succumbed to his wounds.
After the explosion, the Palestinian Health Ministry said five Palestinians were killed, and twenty-six others, including children, were injured.
Majdi was among three Palestinians who suffered life-threatening wounds, while five other Palestinians suffered moderate or moderate-to-serious injuries.
The Palestinians killed in the incident were identified as Mohammad Omar Qaddoum, Ra’ed Rawhi Yahia Ramadan, 17, Abdul-Nasser Rami Nofal, 18, Ali Jom’a Ayyad, and Baraa Wael Al-Zard, 18, who is reported to be the son of a Hamas leader.
Sources described a “suspicious object” as the cause of the explosion, while another source quoted eyewitnesses who stated, that a members of an Israeli engineering unit arrived at the site, adding that occupation soldiers opened fire at those in the vicinity, and prevented them from leaving the place, until the device exploded.
The exact cause of the explosion was not confirmed at the time of writing this report; however, it was described as an “accidental explosion”.
An eyewitness account offers some further details about the nature of the device.
What happened with us near the fence, there was a suspicious object, a camera-like object, its width was about 10 centimeters (3.9 inches), with a half meter length (19.7 inches). The object was completely black. We were ambushed, one of the youths decided to check it with a stick, but it immediately exploded.
Earlier Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of Palestinians gathered along the border fence between Gaza and Israel, to commemorate the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip on September 12, 2005.
Soldiers fired live rounds and tear gas canisters at demonstrators, injuring five with live rounds, they were transported to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
One man was shot in the head with a tear gas canister, while a number of others sustained inhalation injuries from exposure to tear gas.
Sources added that Palestinian youths detonated small crude explosive devices near the border fence. No injuries were reported.
