Israel kills 16 Palestinians in ‘Land Day’ protests
1,800 INJURED AS ‘GREAT MARCH OF RETURN’ ON GAZA BORDER TURNS VIOLENT
At least 16 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,000 injured by Israeli occupation forces confronting one of the largest Palestinian demonstrations along the Israel-Gaza border in recent years.
The occupation forces opened fire at thousands of Palestinians who participated in the ‘Great March of Return’ at five locations along the fenced 65-frontier where tents were erected for a planned six-week protest.
The protests were launched on ‘Land Day,’ an annual commemoration of the deaths of six Palestinians from 1948 areas killed by Israeli forces during demonstrations over government land confiscations in 1976. But the main focus of protests was a demand that Palestinian refugees be allowed the right of return to towns and villages which their families were driven out of, when the state of Israel was created in 1948.
Gaza health officials said one of the 16 dead was aged 16 and at least 1,800 people were wounded by live gunfire, while others were struck by rubber bullets or treated for tear gas inhalation. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared today would be a national day of mourning.
At least 16 Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured by Israeli occupation forces yesterday along the Israel-Gaza border, Gaza medical officials said.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, pressing for a right of return for refugees to what is now Israel, gathered at five locations along the fenced 65km frontier where tents were erected for a planned six-week protest, local officials said.
Families brought their children to the encampments just a few hundred metres from the Israeli security barrier with the Hamas-run enclave, and football fields were marked in the sand and scout bands played.
Two Palestinians were killed by tank fire, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Palestinian health officials said Israeli forces used mostly gunfire against the protesters, in addition to tear gas and rubber bullets. Witnesses said the military had deployed a drone over at least one location to drop tear gas.
Gaza health officials said one of the 16 dead was aged 16 and at least 1,800 people were wounded by live gunfire, rubber bullets or tear gas inhalation.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared today would be a national day of mourning.
Land Day demonstration
The Palestinian protest was launched on ‘Land Day’,” an annual commemoration of the deaths of six Palestinians of 1948 areas killed by Israeli occupatipn forces during demonstrations over government land confiscations in northern Israel in 1976.
But its main focus was a demand that Palestinian refugees be allowed the right of return to towns and villages which their families fled from, or were driven out of, when the state of Israel was created in 1948.
Hamas had earlier urged protesters to adhere to the “peaceful nature” of the protest. Israel has long ruled out any right of return. Peace talks to that end have been frozen since 2014.
The protest, which also coincided with Good Friday and the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover, is scheduled to culminate on May 15, the day Palestinians commemorate what they call the Nakba, or ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic when the Israeli state was created.
The protest organisers include Hamas and representatives of other Palestinian factions. There were also small protests in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and about 65 Palestinians were injured.
In Gaza, the protest was dubbed ‘The Great March of Return’ and some of the tents bore names of the refugees’ original villages in what is now Israel, written in Arabic and Hebrew alike.
The protests come amid growing tensions over US President Donald Trump’s December recognition of occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, as well as a yet-to-be-released US peace plan that Abbas has already pledged to reject. Palestinians accuse Trump — considered to be the most pro-Israeli US president — of being a biased broker for peace.
Abbas severed all official Palestinian contact with the White House in December after Trump announced plans to move the US Embassy to occupied Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
Since Trump’s provocative announcement in December, Palestinians have protested and carried out lone wolf attacks against Israelis to demonstrate their anger. At least five Israelis have been killed in stabbing and car-ramming attacks in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank in recent weeks.
Palestinians demand the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem as their own capital.
In Gaza, Palestinians broke through the fence on at least four occasions last week, including one group armed with knives and grenades that penetrated more than 10 miles inside Israel before being apprehended.
Jason Greenblatt, who is helping spearhead the US peace effort, accused Hamas of instigating a “hostile march” to spark a confrontation.
Palestinians in Gaza have been under a crippling Israeli and Egyptian-imposed blockade since 2007 when Hamas took over control from the Palestinian Authority.
Senior Hamas leader Esmail Haniyeh, appearing at the tent camps yesterday, presented the march as a rebuke to the US peace effort, and said it marks the beginning of the Palestinian return to all of what is now Israel.
“The Great March of Return is a message to Trump that his deal and all those who support it, that there is no concession on occupied Jerusalem, no alternative to Palestine, and no solution but to return,” he said.