Fourteen are shot dead by Israeli troops in Gaza clash
THOUSANDS of Palestinians marched to Gaza’s border with Israel yesterday in the largest such demonstration in recent memory with more than a dozen killed by Israeli fire.
It was the first day of what organisers said will be six weeks of daily protests against a stifling border blockade, and it was also the bloodiest day in Gaza since the 2014 cross-border war between Israel and Hamas.
Fourteen of the marchers were killed and more than 750 wounded by Israeli fire in clashes along the border fence, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military said thousands of Palestinians threw stones and rolled burning tyres toward troops deployed on the other side of the border fence.
It accused militants of trying to carry out attacks under the cover of mass protests, saying in one incident Palestinian gunmen fired toward soldiers.
The large turnout of the flag-waving marchers in the dangerous border zone was a testament to Hamas’ organising skills, but it also signalled desperation among Gaza residents after a decade-old border closure.
Life in the coastal strip has deteriorated further in recent months, with rising unemployment, grinding poverty and daily blackouts that last for hours.
Asmaa al-Katari said she participated in the march despite the risks and would join upcoming protests because “life is difficult here in Gaza and we have nothing to lose”.
The history student said she is a descendant of refugees from what is now Israel’s southern Negev Desert.
She said her grandfathers had lived in tents as refugees. “I want to tell the world that the cause of our grandfathers is not dead,” she added.
Gaza resident Ghanem Abdelal (50) said he hoped the protest “will bring a breakthrough, an improvement, to our life in Gaza”.
He had brought his family to a protest tent camp near Gaza City — one of five set up several hundred metres from the border fence — where he distributed water bottles to women and children sitting on a mat.
Israel had threatened a tough response, hoping to deter breaches of the border fence. The Israeli military released video showing a row of snipers perched on a high earthen embankment facing the Gaza crowd in one location.
Yesterday’s high death toll and prospects of daily protests in coming weeks have raised concerns about another escalation along the volatile frontier. Israel and the Islamic militant Hamas have fought three cross-border wars in recent years. The protest campaign is meant to spotlight Palestinian demands for a “right of return” to what is now Israel.
A large majority of Gaza’s two million people are descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 conflict over Israel’s creation.
The 70th anniversary of the establishment of Israel, on May 15, is marked by Palestinians as their “nakba”, or catastrophe.
The planned mass sit-ins on the border are also seen as a new attempt by Hamas to break the border blockade, imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized Gaza from forces loyal to its rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in 2007. The continued closure has made it increasingly difficult for Hamas to govern.
Other attempts to break the blockade, including wars with Israel and attempts to reconcile with Abbas, have failed.
Earlier this month a bomb targeted but missed Abbas’ prime minister and intelligence chief during a visit to Gaza.