Gaza Strip clash kills 15, injures more than 1,400
Gaza — Fifteen Palestinians were killed and more than 1,400 injured on Friday following clashes with Israeli soldiers near the Gaza Strip border, where tens of thousands marched in the name of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
The march, which kicks off a six-week-long border protest, was billed by organizers as non-violent. However, the Israeli army, accused the Islamist Hamas group that controls the Gaza Strip of using “these violent riots in order to camouflage terror.”
Thousands of Palestinians marched with flags and set up tent encampments near the border, while the army said Palestinians lobbed petrol bombs and rocks. Some approached the IsraelGaza border fence, the army said, prompting soldiers to fire on the “main instigators.”
The Israeli army said that after two Palestinians had exchanged fire with Israeli troops at the border, Israeli jets and tanks had targeted three sites belonging to Hamas in response.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra, who gave the death toll, said that nearly 800 were injured from live fire and hundreds more from rubber bullets and tear gas inhalation.
Those killed were all men between the ages of 18 and 34.
The Israeli army said at least two of the men where affiliated with Hamas.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared Saturday as a day of mourning to commemorate those who died during the protests.
The UN Security Council called a last-minute closeddoor meeting Friday evening to be briefed on the situation by Taye-Brook Zerihoun, one of the UN's deputy chiefs for political affairs.
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War created a mass exodus of Palestinians from what is now Israel. Many today live in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and neighbouring countries, as Israel does not allow them to return.
The Gaza Strip faces an increasingly dire humanitarian situation exacerbated by a blockade of the coastal enclave administered by Israel and Egypt for more than a decade.
The Israeli military says there are six focal points of the protests — dubbed the “Great March of Return” — along the Gaza border wall.
Photos from Gaza showed drones used to fire tear gas, as Israel set up a “closed military zone” in the areas near the border line.
Hamas had called for a peaceful protest last week, amid signs Israel was prepared to use force to push back the march and prevent anyone from approaching the Israel-Gaza border fence.