GAZA-ISRAEL BORDER: Death and wounded toll in Gaza rises drastically asIsraeli Military opens direct tanks fire upon innocent Palestinians.
At least 12 Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured by Israelisecurity forces confronting one of the largest Palestinian demonstrationsalong the Israel-Gaza border in recent years, Gaza medical officials said.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, pressing for a right of return forrefugees to what is now Israel, gathered at five locations along the fenced65-km (40-mile) frontier where tents were erected for a planned six-weekprotest, local officials said. The Israeli military estimate was 30,000.
Families brought their children to the encampments just a few hundredmetres (yards) from the Israeli security barrier, and football fields weremarked in the sand and scout bands played.
But as the day wore on, hundreds of Palestinian youths ignored calls fromthe organisers and the Israeli military to stay away from the frontier,where Israeli soldiers across the border kept watch from dirt moundembankments.
The military said its troops had used “riot dispersal means and firingtowards main instigators.” Some of the demonstrators were “rolling burningtires and hurling stones” at the border fence and at soldiers.
Two Palestinians were killed by tank fire, the Gaza Health Ministry said.The Israeli military said the two were militants who had opened fire attroops across the border. -Agencies