Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Israeli troops kill 1, injure 163 protesters, Gaza officials say
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Thousands of Palestinians, some burning Israeli flags and torching tires, staged a mass protest on Gaza’s sealed border with Israel for a third consecutive Friday as part of a pressure campaign to break a decade-old blockade of their territory.
Israeli live fire from across the border fence killed a 28-year-old Palestinian man and wounded at least 163, Gaza health officials said. The death brought to 28 the number of protesters killed in two weeks, with hundreds wounded by Israeli fire since March 30, officials said.
The marches have been organized by Gaza’s Hamas rulers, but large turnouts on two preceding Fridays were also driven by desperation among the territory’s 2 million residents who have been buckling under a crippling border closure by Israel and Egypt since 2007.
“We want to live like everyone else in the world,” said construction worker Omar Hamada, 37, an unemployed father of eight. “We came here so the world can see us and know that life here is miserable, and that there should be a solution.”
On Friday, the turnout seemed much lower than on previous Fridays — some 10,000 protesters, according to the Israeli military — raising questions about the Palestinian organizers’ goal of keeping the mass marches going until mid-May.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said that at least 701 people were wounded Friday, including 163 by live fire and the rest by tear gas or rubber-coated steel pellets.
Rights groups have described the Israeli military’s open-fire regulations as unlawful, saying they permit soldiers to use potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters.
Israel has accused Gaza’s Islamic militant Hamas rulers of using the protests as a cover for attacks and says snipers only target the main “instigators.”