Israeli fire kills protesters in clashes along Gaza’s border
AT least 15 Palestinian protesters were killed and hundreds more injured in clashes with Israeli forces on the Gaza border yesterday in the bloodiest day of demonstrations in several years.
Thousands of Palestinians marched towards the Israeli fence around Gaza as part of demonstrations supported by Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls the enclave.
Israel’s military said some demonstrators threw firebombs and burning tyres at Israeli troops on the other side of the barricade.
Soldiers fired live ammunition as well as rubber bullets, and tear gas was dropped by drones.
The violence comes at the start of a tense period that will culminate in May with the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem and the 70th anniversary of what Palestinians call the “Nakba” – the mass displacement of Arabs during the 1948 war with Israel.
Yesterday’s demonstrations were described as the start of the “Great March of Return”, in which Palestinian refugees will demand to be able to return to their 1948 homes in what is now Israel.
Hamas said that the people killed had “sacrificed their souls for the sake of the great revolution which precedes the great return”.
The violence began before dawn when a 27-year-old farmer picking parsley in his field was hit by an Israeli tank shell in southern Gaza. Another farmer was injured by shrapnel.
Israel’s military said troops directed tank fire toward suspicious figures on the border.
Later in the day, mosque loudspeakers urged Gaza residents to head to the border encampments. A Hamas-linked bus company ferried protesters to the area.
Tens of thousands gathered at the encampments, though not all headed to the border.
Other Palestinian factions also participated in organising the protests.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 1,000 people were injured, including 758 by live fire and the rest by rubber bullets and tear gas.
Meanwhile, Israel said that the marches were “a dangerous, premeditated provocation meant to fan the flames of conflict and increase tension”.
The Palestinian health ministry reported that a Palestinian farmer was killed early yesterday morning by Israeli strikes in Gaza and that others were killed in clashes with Israeli forces along the border.
An Israeli official said at least two of the dead were known Hamas operatives.
A large majority of Gaza’s two million people are descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war over Israel’s creation.
Turkey accused Israel of using “disproportionate force” in confronting the protesters.