GRAPHIC VIDEO: Egyptian soldiers shoot & kill naked Palestinian who illegally crossed Gaza-Sinai border

 

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were enraged on Saturday after Al Jazeera television aired footage of Egyptian soldiers shooting and killing a Palestinian man who had wandered into the Egypt side of the Rafah crossing through the beach.

In the clip, the man is seen entering the water along the Sinai-Gaza divide. After he steps a few meters into the Egyptian side, he is hit by live fire.

The victim has been identified as Ishak Khalil Hassan, 28, from the Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun.

According to reports, Hassan was known to have suffered from mental and emotional disturbances.

Gaza, a small impoverished coastal enclave, is under blockade by Israel, and Egypt has kept its Rafah crossing largely shut since Cairo’s Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, was toppled by the army in 2013.

Egypt has occasionally opened Rafah to allow passengers with foreign passports as well as students and hospital patients to travel. Israel, which waged war with Hamas in July and August last year, allows travel between it and Gaza largely only on humanitarian grounds such as relief aid and medical treatment.

Cairo has accused Hamas, which is close to the Muslim Brotherhood, of helping militants in Egypt’s Sinai desert, which borders on Gaza, attack its security forces. Hamas denies this.

 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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