Protesters shot dead
GAZA BORDER: Israeli forces shot and killed at least 16 Palestinians during protests yesterday along the Gaza border, Palestinian health officials said.
The officials said at least 500 protesters were injured, at least 35 of them by live bullets.
The Israeli military has accused Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement of instigating Palestinians to try to breach Israel’s border fence and said soldiers use live ammunition to stop them.
Protesters have streamed to the frontier for the climax of a sixweek demonstration as the United States prepared to open its embassy in Jerusalem.
Protests were expected to escalate during the day, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding, as loudspeakers on Gaza mosques urged Palestinians to join the socalled ‘‘Great March of Return’’.
The Palestinian death toll has drawn international criticism, but the US, which has drawn Arab anger by moving its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, has echoed Israel in accusing Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement of instigating violence.
Sending reinforcements to the Gaza border, the Israeli military dropped leaflets into the enclave yesterday, warning Palestinians ‘‘not to serve as a tool of Hamas’’ or approach or damage Israel’s frontier fence.
But thousands of Palestinians massed at five locations along the line, and at least 28, including two local journalists, were wounded by Israeli gunfire, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
The protests are scheduled to culminate today, the day Palestinians mourn as the ‘‘Nakba’’ or ‘‘Catastrophe’’ when, in 1948, hundreds of thousands of them were driven out of their homes.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli aircraft also dropped flammable material yesterday to burn tyres protesters had stacked to be set on fire and rolled at the fence.
The Israelis also fired tear gas at people inside tented encampments that had sprung up along the border, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, Israel launched celebrations for the US embassy’s move to Jerusalem but most envoys to the country were absent at a reception hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Addressing dignitaries at the foreign ministry, including US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the president’s daughter and soninlaw, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the Israeli prime minister urged others to follow the US lead. ‘‘Move your embassies to Jerusalem because it’s the right thing to do.,’’ he said. ‘‘Move your embassies to Jerusalem because it advances peace and that’s because you can’t base peace on a foundation of lies.’’ — Reuters/AAP