JERUSALEM – Israeli forces shot and wounded at least 40 Palestinianprotesters on Friday, Palestinian medics said, as thousands converged onGaza’s border with Israel and set fire to mounds of tyres to launch asecond week of demonstrations.
Twenty Palestinians have died since the demonstrations near the heavilyguarded Gaza border fence began on March 30, the latest a man who died in aGaza hospital on Friday of gunshot wounds suffered on the first day ofprotests.
Five of Friday’s 40 wounded were in critical condition, according to theGaza health ministry.
Palestinian tent encampments have sprung up a few hundred meters (yards)back from the 65-km (40-mile) frontier but groups of youths have venturedmuch closer, rolling tyres and throwing stones towards Israeli troops.
The demonstrators are pressing for a right of return to what is now Israelfor refugees – and their descendants – from the 1948 war surrounding thecountry’s creation. Refugees comprise most of the 2 million population ofIsraeli-blockaded Gaza, which is ruled by the Islamist militant movementHamas.
“I, like everyone around here, am coming to liberate their land,” HekamKuhail, 60, told Reuters, flashing a v-for-victory sign and having herphotograph taken near the border.
With black tyre smoke and Israeli tear gas rising into the air, Palestinianyouths used T-shirts, cheap medical masks and perfume to try and protectthemselves. Israel was also trying to douse burning tyres with fire hosesfrom its side of the border.
The Israeli military has stationed sharpshooters on its side of thefrontier to deter Palestinians from trying to break through the fence intoIsraeli territory. Many of those killed were militants, according to Israel.
*CRITICISM OF SHOOTING AT DEMONSTRATORS*
Seventeen of the 20 Palestinian dead were killed by Israeli gunfire on thefirst day of protests a week ago, medics said. The deaths drewinternational criticism of Israel’s response, which human rights groupssaid involved live fire against demonstrators posing no immediate threat tolife.
The United Nations human rights office urged Israel to exercise restraint.
“We are saying that Israel has obligations to ensure that excessive forceis not employed. And that if there is unjustified and unlawful recourse tofirearms, resulting in death, that may amount to a wilful killing. Andthat’s a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” UN human rightsspokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell said in Geneva.
Israel says it is doing what it must to defend its border and that itstroops have been responding with riot dispersal means and fire “inaccordance with the rules of engagement”.
An Israeli military spokesman said on Friday that the army “will not allowany breach of the security infrastructure and fence, which protects Israelicivilians”.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem urged protesters to keep rallies peaceful.“Maintaining the peaceful nature of the protests will strike all fragileZionist propaganda,” he said.
The Israeli government has ruled out any right of return for Palestinianrefugees, fearing that the country would lose its Jewish majority.
The United States has criticised protest organisers. “We condemn leadersand protesters who call for violence or who send protesters – includingchildren – to the fence, knowing that they may be injured or killed,”President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace envoy, Jason Greenblatt, said onThursday.
The protest action is set to wind up on May 15, when Palestinians mark the“Naqba”, or “Catastrophe”, when hundreds of thousands fled or were drivenout of their homes during violence that culminated in war in May 1948between the newly created state of Israel and its Arab neighbours. -APP/AFP