Teenaged girl shot by Israeli soldiers to walk again

A Palestinian teenage girl, who was shot by Israeli soldiers during anti-occupation rallies on Gaza Strip, will be able to walk again, her doctor said.

Meryem Abu-Matar, 16, who lives in Gaza's Rafah city, was brought to Istanbul for medical treatment.

Since March, Abu-Matar has been through 42 phases of surgery, the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said on Thursday.

The girl can now walk with the support of a walker.

She will soon be able to move without any support, said Dr. Mehmet Veli Karaaltin, her surgeon, who identified her wound as "severe".

He added that the treatment will last a year.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Abu Matar said: "I was targeted because I carry a Palestinian flag. I will continue my struggle."

"My message to the world is that the Palestinian people are unfairly under blockade. We will continue this struggle until we are free," she added.

IHH said that she lost her father when she was 3 years old. She is getting support from their "Orphan sponsorship project".

Since March, more than 140 Palestinians have been martyred -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli army gunfire during protests in the Gaza Strip.

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 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities.