Gaza protests driven by desperation
19 people killed by Israeli soldiers as Hamas-backed demonstrations continue
KHUZAA, Gaza Strip — Palestinian activists chanted “death is better than humiliation” as three-wheelers stacked with old tires drove into a tent camp in a barley field near Gaza’s border. The tires are to be burned at a mass protest Friday, in hopes clouds of black smoke will shield demonstrators from Israeli snipers.
For some of the young Gaza men hanging around the camp, the chant wasn’t just rousing hyperbole. They have been throwing stones and burning tires near the border in recent days, despite new warnings by Israel’s defense minister that anyone getting too close to the fence risks getting killed.
It’s not an idle threat — 19 people were killed by Israeli fire since last Friday, including 14 in border protests, and many more were wounded.
Nahed Qudih, a 17-year-old high school student, said he has nothing to lose by joining his peers in the act of running toward armed soldiers who fire from behind a fence, some perched on high earthen berms providing cover.
“If I was wounded or became a martyr, my family would be proud,” he said.
Qudih’s family would like to see him realize his dream of becoming an engineer, but “not an idle engineer,” he said, referring to bleak job prospects amid rising Gaza unemployment, now at 48 percent, according to the Palestinian statistics bureau.
Such desperation has helped drive what Gaza’s Islamic militant Hamas rulers hope will be several weeks of border protests, with the largest crowds expected on Fridays.
The idea was initially floated by social media activists but has since been co-opted by Hamas, with the backing of smaller militant factions.
Hamas set up five tent camps near border points as a magnet for protesters, offering bus shuttles and monitoring developments from an operations room.
For Hamas, it’s a chance to break a Gaza border blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt since seizing the territory from its rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in 2007.
The blockade has devastated Gaza’s economy, made it virtually impossible for people to enter and exit the territory and left residents with just a few hours of electricity a day. Tap water is undrinkable and the Mediterranean coastline has been polluted with untreated waste.
Other blockade-busting tactics by Hamas have failed over the years, including three cross-border wars with Israel and repeated rounds of unsuccessful power-sharing talks with the West Bank-based Abbas. The last round collapsed last month, in part because Hamas refused to disarm.
Hamas leaders have billed the final protest, set for May 15, as the “Great March of Return” of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, implying they would try to enter Israeli territory. But they have stopped short of specifically threatening a mass breach of the border fence.
Three senior Hamas officials said the group wants to avoid another devastating war with Israel, but border tensions could escalate — especially if Israel makes good on threats to target Hamas positions deeper inside Gaza unless the protests stop.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing confidential strategy, acknowledged they don’t have a Plan B if the blockade remains in place after May 15.
At a minimum, Hamas hopes to draw international attention to Gaza and improve leverage if Egypt brokers a new round of talks with Abbas, the officials said. In a sign that the pressure is working, the Egyptian intelligence met with Abbas this week to try to prevent a Gaza escalation.
Israel has accused Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, of exploiting Gaza’s civilians for its political gains by sending them to the dangerous border area.
It argues that it has a right to defend its border, alleging that Hamas used last week’s protest as cover for trying to damage the border fence, plant explosives and, in one incident, fire on soldiers. Military officials believe Hamas is encouraging people to break through the border.
Israel also has argued that Hamas could have ended the suffering of Gaza’s 2 million people by disarming and renouncing violence. Hamas has refused to give up its weapons — even at the cost of derailing talks on getting Abbas to assume the burden of governing Gaza, a prerequisite for opening Gaza’s borders.
Critics say the blockade has backfired by largely harming Gaza civilians, while leaving Hamas solidly in control. They also accuse Israel of using the blockade to advance political aims, such as deepening a separation of Gaza from the West Bank, both sought for a future Palestinian state.
On Wednesday, a leading Israel human-rights group urged Israeli forces to disobey their open-fire orders unless Gaza protesters pose an imminent threat to soldiers’ lives, calling the appeal a lastditch attempt to prevent more bloodshed on the volatile Gaza-Israel border.
B’Tselem, the group, has never before called on soldiers to refuse orders, but it believes firing on Palestinians who pose no imminent threat to the lives of Israeli forces is “manifestly illegal,” spokesman Amit Gilutz said.
“As long as soldiers in the field continue to receive orders to use live fire against unarmed civilians, they are duty-bound to refuse to comply,” the group said.