Palestinian defiance has unnerved Israel
‘March of Return’ has been a source of confusion and embarrassment for the Zionist state and its forces of oppression
work. Simultaneously, with the easing of the fire, the army tightened its grip on the Gaza Strip to deter its residents from taking part in the marches that are burdening and embarrassing the Zionist state. The blockade has even increased to the extent of prohibiting treatment of injured protesters outside the besieged Strip.
■ Fifth: While the Palestinians maintained the momentum of the marches, the occupation forces resorted to reducing the number of Palestinian casualties, but turned to inflict injuries permanently by sniping at the legs of demonstrators with special fire as the ‘best solution’ to stop the marches. “What is unusual is that the wounds are very large, and the bones can be broken into several parts,” said Marie Elisabeth Ingres, head of the Medecins Sans Frontieres mission in the Occupied Territories. On his part, Israeli journalist B. Michael wrote in Israeli daily Haaretz: “In recent weeks, dozens of armed snipers and those in bulletproof jackets fired at people who did not threaten the lives of any soldier. The entry point of the bullet is very small, but its exit point is very large, devastated blood vessels, crushed flesh and bones, as if there was a predatory beast. The hollow point bullet is internationally banned and a war crime since 100 years ago, according to The Hague Charter, the International Criminal Court and the Red Cross.”
■ Sixth: The Israeli army began to strike deep into the Gaza Strip. Troops hit Hamas naval facilities with increased shelling of its positions deep inside Gaza as a message that the continuation of the marches would be the price of escalation. “Hamas must know that any attack on army commanders on the Gaza border will immediately renew targeted killings of its leadership,” said Israel’s Minister of Intelligence and Transport, Yisrael Katz. Again, Yediot Ahronot, an Israeli newspaper quoted a military official as saying, “The growing involvement of the Palestinians prompted the army to adopt this policy as a message that any approach to the fence on the anniversary of the Nakba and the first Friday of Ramadan, the target will be deep in Gaza.”
All said, the extreme right-wing Israeli government continues to seek every means to stop the ‘March of Return’ out of fear of dragging it into a kind of war that is draining its energies, exhausting it and raising global condemnation against its army that faces an unarmed population.