A Palestinian journalist was shot and killed by Israeli forces while covering protests along the Israeli border in Gaza late Friday.

Photos show Yasser Murtaja, 31, wearing a "press" vest as he was evacuated during the clashes after being shot. He died of his injuries shortly afterwards.

The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate report that six journalists, all of whom they say were easily identifiable as press, were shot by Israeli forces firing over the border on Friday, including Murtaja.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces told BuzzFeed News that they were investigating Murtaja's death, but said that journalists were not intentionally targeted. The spokesperson said IDF troops were working to protect the security fence with Israel from Hamas, which they blamed for inciting "tens of thousands" of people to approach and attack the fence, throwing explosives and rocks at soldiers.

"IDF troops are operating in accordance with clear rules of engagement that are tailored to this scenario. The IDF uses means such as warnings, riot dispersal means, and as a last resort firing live rounds in a precise, measured way,” said the spokesperson.

“The IDF does not intentionally target journalists. The circumstances in which journalists were allegedly hit by IDF fire are not familiar to the IDF, and are being looked into," the spokesperson said.

Witnesses told the Associated Press reported Murtaja was shot below the armpit while holding his camera as protesters set fire to tires, resulting in thick black smoke. </s> Hundreds gathered in Gaza City Saturday for the funeral of Palestinian journalist Yasser Murtaja, who was killed by Israeli fire at protests at the Gaza-Israel border on Friday.

Murtaja died in the hospital after being shot by IDF fire whilst covering the second week of the Great Return March protests. His death brings the total number of casualties from Friday to 10.

READ MORE: Great Return March: 10 Palestinian protesters killed after IDF fire on Gaza border (VIDEOS)

Murtaja was wearing a press flak jacket and holding his camera when he was shot in the side of his abdomen in the town of Khuzaa. He was among six Palestinian journalists reported wounded by gunfire on Friday. Photographs of Murtaja being treated after he was shot show him wearing a press jacket.

“We were filming as youths torched tyres.” photographer Ashraf Abu Amra told Reuters. “We were about 250 meters from the fence. Israeli forces opened fire and injuries began. Yaser and I ran to film when suddenly Yaser fell to the ground.”

Murtaja was a photojournalist and filmmaker with Ain Media, which he co-founded. It creates work used by international media clients like the BBC and Al Jazeera. His shooting and subsequent death was announced by journalism groups including the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, The Gaza Center for Media Freedom, and Reporters without Borders.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was among the hundreds at the funeral Saturday. Meanwhile, dozens of journalists gathered in Manara Square in Ramallah in the West Bank to protest Murtaja’s death, the WAFA News Agency reported.

RT has contacted the IDF for comment about Murtaja’s death and reports that it fired at members of the media. An Israeli Army spokesperson told the Times of Israel it had no immediate comment on the issue.

Two weeks before he died, Murtaja shared a drone image of Gaza’s sea on Facebook, writing, “I wished I could take this photo from the sky, not from land. My name is Yasser Murtaja, I am 30 years old. I live in Gaza City. I have never traveled.”

The Great Return March is planned to continue up until the anniversary of the ‘Nakba’ on May 15, which Palestinians call the mass exodus from their land during the establishment of the state of Israel. Israelis celebrate this as Independence Day. Gaza is home to 2 million residents, many of them refugees expelled from Israel, who maintain the hope that their right to return will one day be granted.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! </s> Reporters Without Borders on Saturday accused the Israeli army of the "deliberate shooting" of journalists in Gaza after a week of bloodshed by the border.

Nine people were killed in the latest unrest, including Yasser Murtaja, a journalist with the Gaza-based Ain Media agency who died from his wounds after being shot, the health ministry in Gaza said.

At least 491 people were also wounded by Israeli gunfire, the ministry said, as thousands of protesters approached the border fence around Gaza for a second Friday in a row, burning tyres and hurling stones at Israeli forces.

"Palestinian photographer Yasser Mourtaja was wearing a vest marked "Press": he was obviously the victim of an intentional shot," said Christophe Deloire, the Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), on Twitter.

"RSF condemns absolutely the deliberate shooting of journalists by the Israeli army."

Murtaja, 30, was shot while taking pictures of the protests east of Khan Younis in the south of the territory, according to the health ministry.

Witnesses say he was close to the front of the protests when he was hit.

An AFP picture taken after he was wounded showed Murtaja wearing a press vest as he received treatment.

His brother Motazem, also a journalist, said he was next to him when he was shot. "The target was very clearly journalists," he said.

Israel's army declined to comment, saying it was reviewing the incident.

Mourners and journalists carried Murtaja's body through the streets of Gaza during his funeral on Saturday.

"We call on the Israeli government to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2222 on the protection of journalists (adopted in 2015), demand an urgent independent investigation and the sentencing of the perpetrators of this crime against freedom of the press," said Deloire.

Israel said around 20,000 people took part in the protests and that they were seeking to breach the border.

The numbers were down from the previous Friday, when tens of thousands approached the border in demonstrations that saw Israeli forces kill 19 Palestinians, making it the bloodiest day in Gaza since a 2014 war. </s> Palestinians killed in conflict with Israeli forces are often wrapped in their national or party flags, but there was something different about Yasser Murtaja's body ahead of his Saturday burial.

Resting on the journalist's chest was a flak jacket marked PRESS, possibly the one he was wearing the day before when he was shot dead at the Gaza border, apparently by an Israeli sniper.

Dozens of journalists, many fighting back tears, followed the body of the 30-year-old father as it was carried from the hospital to his home late Saturday morning.

His serene face exposed and body wrapped in the Palestinian flag, the flak jacket lay on his lifeless chest.

Murtaja was one of nine Palestinians killed as Israeli troops shot at thousands of stone-throwing protesters in five spots along the border Friday, a week after 19 people were killed during similar demonstrations.

His killing will likely increase calls for Israel to investigate the deaths, with photos taken at the scene indicating he was wearing a press vest when he was shot.

Murtaja, who was well known in the local media scene, worked for the relatively small Gaza-based Al-Ain media production company, specialising in documentaries.

His brother Mutasim, also a journalist who was with him Friday, said Murtaja was photographing a number of protesters burning tyres when he was shot.

"Yasser went forward to take the true pictures to show the world," he told AFP.

"Then the bullet hit him in his stomach."

The Israeli army said in a statement it "does not intentionally target journalists."

"The circumstances in which journalists were allegedly hit by Israeli Defence Force (IDF) fire are not familiar to the IDF, and are being looked into."

- 'Up in the air' -

Murtaja recently worked on a documentary about the 2014 war between Israel and Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas, which was shown on Al-Jazeera Arabic.

But he also focused on other topics, where frequently used drones, which seem to have been something of an escape from life in Gaza.

The Palestinian enclave has been under an Israeli blockade for a decade, while Egypt has all but sealed its border in recent years as well -- leaving the Strip's two million residents effectively locked in.

"My name is Yasser Murtaja, I am 30 years old, live in Gaza City and have never travelled," the journalist said in a March post on Facebook accompanying one of his drone photos from high above Gaza.

"Today I take a shot and I am up in the air, not on the ground."

Hind Khoudary, a friend and fellow journalist, said he was "a beautiful person both inside and out".

"His reputation with everyone was as someone very kind," she added, tears welling in her eyes.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, whose group Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organisation, attended the funeral and eulogised Murtaja.

The journalist's friends and family insisted he was independent of any political party.

Israel has accused Hamas of orchestrating the protests and using them as an excuse to carry out attacks.

Haniya often attends funerals of those killed in violence with Israel, even if they are not Hamas.

Al-Ain's office in Gaza City, were Murtaja worked, was closed Saturday, but Khoudary said the death made journalists feel they were "all targets".

"He was only covering what was happening." </s> GAZA – A Palestinian journalist died on Saturday after being wounded by Israeli fire on Friday while covering deadly protests along the Israel-Gaza border, health officials said.

Yaser Murtaja, 30, a cameraman for Palestinian Ain Media, was the 29th Palestinian killed in the week-long protests.

Photos showed Murtaja lying wounded on a stretcher wearing a navy-blue protective vest marked ‘PRESS’ in large black capital letters. Health officials said a live bullet had penetrated the side of his abdomen and he succumbed to his wounds in hospital.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army was looking into the incident and could not comment further at this stage.

The daily protests, dubbed “The Great March of Return”, began on March 30 along the Israel-Gaza frontier, reviving a longstanding demand for the right of return of Palestinian refugees to towns and villages from which their families fled, or were driven out, when the state of Israel was created.

Israel has stationed sharpshooters to stop attempts by Palestinians to breach the border or sabotage the security fence.

Freelance photographer Ashraf Abu Amra told Reuters he was next to Murtaja, whom he said was wearing a helmet and protective vest. Abu Amra said they were both clearly marked as journalists.

“We were filming as youths torched tyres. We were about 250 meters from the fence,” said Abu Amra. “Israeli forces opened fire and injuries began. Yaser and I ran to film when suddenly Yaser fell to the ground.

“I screamed to him ‘Yaser are you alright?’. He didn’t respond and there was blood on the ground underneath him. I knew it was a bad injury and people carried him away,” said Abu Amra.

Video footage showed Murtaja being carried to an ambulance with crowds around and black smoke rising from where protesters had set tyres alight, east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Murtaja was married with a two-year-old son. Hundreds of mourners, among them many journalists, attended his funeral on Saturday.

His body was covered with a Palestinian flag and his press jacket laid beside him on the stretcher as it was carried through the streets of Gaza City to his home for a last farewell.

“I made him breakfast, he ate quickly, he was in a hurry to go to work,” said Murtaja’s mother, Yusra, recounting the morning of the protest.

“I thought he would recover from his injury, I didn’t expect his death, but God has chosen him as a martyr, thank God,” she said, sitting on the ground as mourners came to the house to pay their respects.

Israel Radio, citing an unnamed source in Gaza, said Murtaja had been operating a camera drone on Friday. Abu Amra and two other Palestinian journalists said Murtaja was not operating a camera drone when shot.

 Murtaja, on his Facebook page, had posted two aerial photos taken at the border in the past week. It was unclear if he had taken them himself.

At least three other journalists were wounded on Friday in other locations, Gaza officials said. There have been no Israeli casualties in the protests.

Israel’s response to the protests has drawn international criticism, with human rights groups saying it involved live fire against demonstrators posing no immediate threat to life.

Israel says it is doing what it must to defend its border and its troops have been responding with riot dispersal means and fire “in accordance with the rules of engagement”.

Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza, says the protests demanding the right of return of refugees will continue.

The Israeli government has ruled out any right of return, fearing the country would lose its Jewish majority.

Israel says many of the dead were militants and that Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the West, is using the protests as cover to launch attacks along the border and ignite the area, while putting Gaza’s civilians at risk.
A funeral is held for journalist Yasser Murtaja, shot at the fence wearing a press jacket covering tyre burnings by protestors yesterday. Israel denies targeting journalists intentionally and says it is investigating.