12 killed in Gaza as border clashes erupt

AT least 12 Palestinians in Gaza were killed by Israeli forces yesterday as clashes erupted on one of the conflict’s bloodiest days in recent years.

Israeli forces fired live ammunition after the army said people near the border fence rolled burning tyres and threw stones and firebombs at soldiers.

Health officials in Gaza reported 11 dead in the violence and around 1,000 injured. A 12th Palestinian was killed by Israeli tank fire early yesterday as he harvested parsley in a field a mile from the border.

Large crowds of Palestinian protesters waved flags and marched towards the Gaza border fence with Israel, the first in a series of protests planned in coming weeks. They are due to culminate on May 15, the day after the 70th anniversary of Israel’s creation.

Palestinians commemorate the date as the anniversary of their displacement during the 1948 war.

The vast majority of people in Gaza are descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their communities in what is now Israel.

Major General Eyal Zamir, commander of the Israeli military’s Southern Command, insisted there had been ‘attempts to carry out terror attacks under the camouflage of riots’.