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The Gaza Ministry of Health reported Tuesday that 61 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces including 8 children, among them an 8-month-old baby girl who suffocated from severe tear gas inhalation.
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The baby girl was identified as Laila Anwar Ghandour from Gaza City. According to the ministry, more than 2770 Palestinians were injured during the protests Monday including 225 children and 86 women.
Dozens of Palestinians marched Tuesday morning in a funeral procession for Laila as Palestinians marked the anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, which coincides with the founding of the state of Israel which saw the displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their home in what is now Israel.
Heyam Omar, the baby girl grandmother, said she died from tear gas she inhaled at a protest camp on Monday. "We went there (to the tent camp) where they (Israeli forces) fired tear gas and when we were leaving we saw the baby struggling to breathe and she moved her head but then she had choked," Omar said from the hospital.
Monday's violence on the border, which took place as the United States opened its new embassy in Jerusalem, was the bloodiest for Palestinians since the 2014 Gaza conflict.
Palestinian leaders have called Monday's events a massacre, and the Israeli tactic of using live fire against the protesters has drawn worldwide concern and condemnation. South Africa has withdrawn its ambassador to Israel in protest of the killings while Turkey recalled its envoys to both Israel and the U.S. in protest of the brutal crackdown as well as the inauguration of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
Israel has said it is acting in self-defence to defend its borders and communities. Its main ally the United States has backed that stance, with both saying that Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement ruling Gaza was to blame for the deaths and protests.
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