15 killed, 1,400 hurt on Gaza border
Gaza-Israel Border : Clashes erupted as tens of thousands of Gazans marched near the Israeli border in a major protest on Friday, leaving 15 Palestinians dead and hundreds more wounded in the conflict’s worst single day of violence since the 2014 Gaza war.
Late in the day, Israel’s military targeted three Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip with tank fire and an air strike after what it said was an attempted shooting attack against soldiers along the border that caused no injuries.
Protesters, including women and children, had earlier gathered at multiple sites throughout the blockaded territory, which is flanked by Israel along its eastern and northern borders.
Smaller numbers approached within a few hundred metres (yards) of the heavily fortified border fence, with Israeli troops using tear gas and live fire to force them back.
Israeli security forces used a drone to fire tear gas toward those along the border, in one of the first uses of the device, a police spokesman said.
The health ministry in Gaza said 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces.
More than 1,400 were injured, including 758 by live fire, with the remainder hurt by rubber bullets and tear gas inhalation, it said.
Palestinians accused Israel of using disproportionate force, as did Turkey.
The UN Security Council was to hold closed-door talks about the situation in Gaza later Friday at the request of Kuwait, a diplomat said.
Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries to have signed peace treaties with Israel, denounced the use of force against the protesters while the Arab League condemned what it called Israel’s “savagery”.
Protesters were demanding hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948 be allowed to return.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniya attended the protest, believed to be the first time he had gone so close to the border in years.
Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, the most recent of which in 2014 ended with a fragile truce.
On Friday evening, Gazan leaders called on protesters to retreat from the border area until Saturday, with the demonstration planned to last six weeks, until the inauguration of the new US embassy in Jerusalem around May 14. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas declared Saturday a day of national mourning.
Protests along the border are common, often culminating in young Palestinian men throwing stones at Israeli soldiers who respond with tear gas, and rubber and live bullets.
The “March of Return” protest is different because it is intended to include families with women and children camping near the border for weeks.
Five main camp sites have been set up spanning the length of the frontier, from near the Erez border crossing in the north to Rafah where it meets the Egyptian border in the south.
Organisers say the camps will remain in place until May 15 when Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, of the 1948 creation of Israel with the exodus of more than 700,000 Palestinians.
Related Posts