Tensions are high as Palestinians are staging big „March of Return“ rallies along the border for the next six weeks, in advance of the 70th anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel.
Seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, Palestinian medical officials said Friday, as thousands gather in protest along the Gaza-Israel border.
Israeli forces fired live bullets and tear gas at the Palestinian protesters, and the Palestinian health officials say scores were wounded, NPR’s Daniel Estrin reports from Jerusalem.
Tensions are high, as Palestinians are staging big rallies along the border as part of what they’re calling the „March of Return“ protests, as Reuters reports:
The protests are planned to last through May 15, the 70 th anniversary of the founding of Israel.
„The large crowds… reflect the Palestinian people’s determination to achieve the right of return and break the siege and no force can stop this right,“ said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, according to The Associated Press.
The Israeli army tweeted that Palestinian protesters were „rolling burning tires and hurling firebombs & rocks at the security fence & IDF troops, who are responding w riot dispersal means and firing towards main instigators.“ It said it has reinforced troops and warned that it „is prepared to respond to the violent riots planned throughout the Gaza Strip, if necessary.“
Israel defense minister Avigdor Liberman took the unusual step of tweeting in Arabic in a message to those living in Gaza. „Everyone approaching the wall endangers his life,“ he wrote. „I advise you to continue your normal lives and not engage in provocation.“
One of those killed was a farmer, identified as 27-year-old Amr Samour, who died when an Israeli tank fired on him. Another man was injured by shrapnel in the shelling.
His relative and fellow farmer, Yasser Samour, told The Associated Press that Amr Samour had been collecting parsley in the early morning darkness when he was struck.
„I was working on the next field,“ Samour told the AP. „We heard shelling landing on the field where Amr works. We ran there and found him hit directly with a shell. We were more than kilometer away from the border.“
A spokesman for the Israeli military told Reuters that in southern Gaza „two suspects approached the security fence and began operating suspiciously and the tank fired towards them.“
The clashes are happening amid a number of holy days: Passover begins at sundown on Friday, which is also Good Friday for Christians, and Eastern Orthodox Easter is next Sunday.
Israel does not accept any right of return.
„No Israeli government would ever be likely to accept this demand, since it would spell the end of Israel as a Jewish-majority state,“ The Times of Israel writes . „Israel’s position is that Palestinian refugees and their descendants would become citizens of a Palestinian state at the culmination of the peace process, just as Jews who fled or were forced out of Middle Eastern countries by hostile governments became citizens of Israel.“
