UPDATE 2 - 3 Palestinians in Gaza Strip killed by Israeli forces

*UPDATES WITH QASSAM STATEMENT

By Mohamed Majid

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Three Palestinians were killed Friday by Israeli forces near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

“Three Palestinians were martyred by Israeli occupation forces, including two in the northern Gaza Strip and a third in the southern city of Rafah,” ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement.

He did not provide the names or ages of the slain individuals.

However, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas (which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007), said three of its members had been killed by Israeli artillery in Khan Younis and Rafah.

In a statement, the group identified the slain men as Shaaban Abu Khater, Mohamed Abu Farhana and Mahmoud Qeshta.

For almost four months, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been holding almost daily demonstrations near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone.

Since the demonstrations began on Mar. 30, more than 140 Palestinian protesters have been martyred -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli army gunfire.

Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.