Gaza violence flares again
GAZA CITY Black smoke from burning tyres mixed with streaks of tear gas fired by Israeli forces yesterday as several thousand Palestinians staged a sixth weekly protest on the Gaza-Israel border.
At least 70 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire, the lowest casualty toll since the protests began.
Hundreds of demonstrators broke into the Gaza side of a cargo crossing with Israel, damaging pipelines that carried fuel and gas into Gaza, the Israeli military said. It called the incident a ‘‘cynical act of terror’’ that harmed Gaza civilians.
Elsewhere, witnesses said Israeli drones faced off against flaming kites flown by Palestinians over the border fence in recent weeks to set fire to wheat fields on the Israeli side. The witnesses said two kites with burning rags were brought down by the drones, while two other drones crashed after being hit by stones.
The protests are part of a weekly campaign organised by Gaza’s Hamas rulers. The marches each Friday are aimed, in part, at breaking a decade-old blockade of the territory imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamist militant group took control there in 2007.
Hamas has said the protests will culminate in a mass march on May 15, with some officials suggesting a possible border breach at the time, and others saying the protests might continue beyond that date. Israel has warned that it will prevent such a breach at any cost.
May 15 is the day Palestinians commemorate their mass uprooting in the 1948 war over Israel’s creation. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel. Two-thirds of Gaza’s residents are descendants of refugees.
Despite the risks faced by the protesters near the border, turnout has been sustained by widespread desperation at the blockade-linked hardships of life in Gaza. Virtually all of the territory’s 2 million people are barred from travel, about twothirds of its young people are unemployed, and power is on for only a few hours a day.
Yesterday, 229 protesters were hospitalised, including 70 with bullet wounds, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Three of the wounded were in a serious condition.
Since late March, 40 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1700 wounded by Israeli army fire. Yesterday marked the first weekly protest in which no Palestinians were reported killed by sundown.
Yehiyeh Amarin, 18, said he and his friends would keep going to the border until the blockade was lifted.
‘‘If no solution happens by May 15, we will continue the protests or we die,’’ he said, as another protester behind him brandished a yellow wire cutter. ‘‘We will cut through the fence.’’
He said he and his friends called themselves the ‘‘tyres unit’’, spending their weekdays collecting tyres for the weekly demonstrations.
‘‘We want a dignified life and a return to our lands,’’ said Amarin as he and others rolled tyres towards the border fence to set them ablaze.
The mounting casualty toll has led to growing criticism of Israel. Rights groups say Israel’s open-fire regulations are unlawful because they permit troops to use potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters.
Israel’s Supreme Court is considering a petition by six rights groups to restrict or ban the use of live fire on the border. The European Union and the United Nations have also criticised the use of lethal force.
Israel says it is defending its sovereign border, including nearby Jewish settler communities, and that soldiers only target instigators.
It accuses Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, of trying to carry out attacks under the guise of the mass protests. It has said that some of those protesting at the border in recent weeks have tried to damage the border fence or plant explosives along it.
Hamas says the protests are aimed at breaking the blockade and pressing for the ‘‘right of return’’ of displaced Palestinians and their descendants. AP