528 injured in Gaza clashes

Gaza City : Thousands of Palestinians staged a mass protest along Gaza’s sealed border with Israel on Friday, some burning large Israeli flags and torching tires while soldiers fired tear gas and live bullets from across the border fence.

Gaza health officials said 528 people were hurt, including 122 by Israeli fire, in the third large-scale protest in as many consecutive Fridays. Such weekly demonstrations are to continue to mid-May, keeping tensions high along the volatile border.

The health officials said that among those hurt Friday was a Gaza journalist who was in serious condition with a bullet wound in the abdomen. Since late March, 27 Palestinians, including a journalist, have been killed and hundreds wounded by Israeli army fire in such rallies.

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.”

On Friday, most of the demonstrators assembled at five tent camps located several hundred meters (yards) from the border fence.

Smaller groups moved closer to the fence, throwing stones, torching tires and burning large Israeli flags, U.S. flags, as well as posters of Israel’s prime minister and defense minister. Large plumes of black smoke from burning tires rose into the sky.

Israeli forces fired tear gas, rubber-coated steel pellets and live rounds.

The marches have been organized by Hamas, but large turnouts on two preceding Fridays were also driven by desperation among the territory’s 2 million residents. Gaza has endured a border blockade by Israel and Egypt since Hamas overran the territory in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliament elections.

Several thousand people gathered Friday at a tent camp east of Gaza City. The camp was decked out in Palestinian flags. In the camp, 37-year-old construction worker Omar Hamada said he is protesting to draw world attention to Gaza and get the border reopened.

“We want to live like everyone else in the world,” he said. “We came here so the world can see us and know that life here is miserable, and that there should be a solution.”

Hamada was critical of Hamas, saying the group has set back Gaza by decades, but added that “this is the reality and we have to deal with it.”

The debate over Israel’s open-fire regulations has intensified with a rising number of dead and wounded since the first protests on March 30.

In all, 34 Palestinians were killed in the past two weeks, 27 during protests. Seven were killed in other circumstances, including six militants engaged in apparent attempts to carry out attacks or infiltrate Israel.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 1,300 Palestinians were wounded by live fire in the past two weeks.

The Israeli military has argued that Gaza militant groups are trying to turn the border area into a combat zone, and said it has a right to defend its sovereign border. Conricus said Friday that the military is trying to minimize Palestinian casualties, but hadn’t changed open-fire regulations.

Human rights groups have reiterated that soldiers can only use lethal force if they face an apparent imminent threat to their lives.