Middle East protests and conflict mar Ramadan festivities
Gaza worshippers knelt on prayer rugs spread on sandy soil near the perimeter fence with Israel, joining hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world yesterday in marking the holiday that caps the fasting month of Ramadan.
The three-day Eid al-fitr holiday is typically a time of family visits and festive meals, with children getting new clothes, haircuts and gifts.
In the Middle East, celebrations were once again marred by prolonged conflict in hot spots such as Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen.
Some worshippers in the Gaza Strip performed the traditional morning prayers of the holiday in areas several hundred meters away from the heavily guarded fence with Israel.
Yesterday’s prayers marked the continuation of protests against a blockade of Gaza, imposed by Israel and Egypt after the 2007 takeover of the territory by the Islamic militant group Hamas.
More than 120 protesters have been killed since late March and more than 3,800 wounded by Israeli army fire in the area of the fence.
Ismail Haniyeh – the top Hamas leader – joined worshippers in an area east of Gaza City.
At one point, as the faithful bowed their heads on their prayer mats in unison, a young man on crutches followed the ritual while he remained standing. Some activists later approached the fence, burning tyres.
Protest organisers said they planned to release large numbers of kites and balloons with incendiary materials rags throughout the day in hopes they will land in Israel.
Such kites with burning rags attached have reportedly burned hundreds of acres of crops and forests in Israel.
Protest organiser Mohammed al-tayyar said larger balloons with greater potential for damage would be released after ten days unless the blockade was lifted. Israel’s defence minister has said Israel was determined to stop such kites and balloons.
The protests have been organized by Hamas, but turnout has been driven by growing despair in Gaza about blockade-linked hardships. Unemployment is now approaching 50 per cent and electricity is on for just a few hours every day.
Hamas has also billed the protests as the “Great March of Return”, suggesting they would somehow pave the way for a return of Palestinian refugees and their descendants – about two-thirds of Gaza’s residents – to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled or fled in the mid-east war over Israel’s 1948 creation.
Mr Haniyeh said after yesterday’s prayers, which were also being held outdoors in another location east of the town of Khan Younis, that protests would continue.
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