Gaza protesters move tents closer to border
MIDDLE EAST: Gaza protest organisers moved sit-in tents closer to the Israeli border fence yesterday, a day before a fourth planned mass demonstration, raising fears of more bloodshed.
The protests, largely led by Gaza’s Hamas rulers, began on March 30. Organisers said they would gradually move the camps towards the fence until May 15, but made conflicting comments about a possible breach.
Hamas says the protests are aimed at breaking a crippling border blockade that was imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamist militant group overran the territory in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliament elections. The marches are also calling for the return of the descendants of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes in the 1948 war over Israel’s creation.
While some organisers portray the protests as peaceful, Hamas and representatives of other factions have made it clear that a border breach is being considered.
‘‘We will cross the border,’’ said Daoud Shehab, a member of the organising committee from the smaller Islamic Jihad group, adding that Israel ‘‘should feel really jittery as a result of these marches’’.
Israeli military officials have warned that they will not tolerate a mass border breach or permit protesters to get close to the fence.
Israel’s military said yesterday that it was ready for all scenarios and was ‘‘prepared to prevent any breach of Israeli sovereignty or damage to the border fence’’.
Several Israeli communities are close to the border.
Rights groups have branded Israel’s open-fire regulations as unlawful, saying they permit soldiers to use potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters.
In the past three weeks, Israeli troops firing from across the border fence have killed 28 protesters and wounded more than 1500, according to Gaza health officials.
During the weekly Friday marches, most protesters have remained in the five sit-in tent camps, but smaller groups have moved towards the fence, throwing stones, hurling firebombs or burning tyres.
Yesterday, organisers moved tent camps several dozen metres closer to the fence. In a camp east of Gaza City, five tents were moved to within 300m of the border, just within range of tear gas volleys. Bulldozers raised protective sand berms around the new tents. At another protest site in southeastern Gaza, earth mounds were created to define the camp’s new boundary.
Meanwhile, activists were testing new means of confronting Israel – kites with burning rags dangling from their tails. The aim is to set ablaze drying wheat fields on the Israeli side.
In the camp near Gaza City, activists flew two kites yesterday. One fell short in Gaza. The other reached its destination but failed to start a fire. Several fires have been started in wheat fields on the Israeli side of the border by such contraptions in recent days, according to the news website.
The Facebook page of the Gaza protest organisers published images on Thursday of Israeli fields behind the fence, taken from a small camera attached to a kite.
Yesterday’s development came as Israel was celebrating 70 years since the modern Jewish state was established.