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by Chris Carlson - 1 of International Middle East Media Center Editorial Group

A Palestinian child, age 13, has been seriously injured, on Friday evening, as Israeli forces east of Rafah fired at him.

Al Ray reports that medical sources at Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital, in the southern Gaza Strip, said Fadel Abu Odwan, 13, was shot in the pelvis, assessing his this status as critical.

The child was transferred to the European Hospital in Khan Younis, given his serious injury, the sources added.

The Israeli military claimed that they targeted a militant, saying that the shooting was carried out after the ‘militant’ did not respond to the calls of the Israeli soldiers.

Some 16 Palestinian civilians were injured earlier, one child critically, by Israeli occupation forces east of Jabalya, during a weekly border protest against Israel limiting the buffer zone imposed along the east borders and the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The buffer zone is between 500 meters and 1500 meters into the Strip, effectively turning local farms into no-go zones.

According to UNOCHA, 17 percent of Gaza's total land area and 35 percent of its agricultural land were within the buffer zone as of 2010, directly affecting the lives and livelihoods of more than 100,000 Gazans.