Israeli Military martyrs 12 Palestinians and wound over hundred
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GAZA BORDER: Israeli troops martyred at least 12 Palestinians and wounded hundred on Friday as they confronted one of the largest Palestinian demonstrations along the Israel-Gaza border in recent years, Gaza medical officials said.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, pressing for a right of return for refugees to what is now Israel, gathered at five locations along the fenced 65-km (40-mile) frontier where tents were erected for a planned six-week protest, local officials said.
Gazans, including Palestinian refugees and their descendants seeking to regain ancestral homes in what is now Israel, have set up tent encampments a few hundred metres (yards) inside the 65-km (40-mile) fence that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Large groups of youths have ventured much closer to the no-go zone along the barrier, risking live fire from Israeli troops to roll burning tyres and throw stones.
“Israel took everything from us, the homeland, freedom, our future,” said Samer, a 27-year-old protester who would not give his full name, fearing Israeli reprisals. “I have two kids, a boy and a girl, and if I die, God will take care of them.”
The number of protesters on Friday was larger than in recent days, but lower than the outset of the disturbances on March 30, when 17 Palestinians were fatally shot by Israeli forces. The Israeli military estimated Friday’s turnout at around 20,000.
Refugees comprise most of the 2 million population of Israeli-blockaded Gaza, an enclave ruled by the Hamas movement.
