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GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man on Thursday along the border of the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, announced that a man identified as Abdullah Muhammad Shahri, 28, was shot in the chest during ongoing protests, east of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis.

Shahri was evacuated to the European Hospital in Khan Younis, and was pronounced dead shortly after.

Shahri’s death brought the number of Palestinians killed during protests along the Gaza border to 30, since the “Great March of Return” began on March 30.

The "Great March of Return” is a weeks-long planned protest in which almost 1.3 million of Gaza’s 2 million inhabitants who are refugees are demanding their right to return to their original homelands from which they were forcibly expelled when the state of Israel was created in 1948.

The six-week protest is set to end on May 15th, the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, or “catastrophe,” when the state of Israel was created, leaving some 750,000 Palestinians and millions of their descendants as refugees.

Despite widespread outcry from international rights groups who have condemned Israel’s excessive use of forces against the civilian protesters, Israeli has maintained its open-fire rules for the Gaza border.