Palestinians gather for mass protests at Israeli border
April 13, 2018
At least one Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in a protest at the Gaza-Israel border. Thousands gathered for a third consecutive week to protest for the right to return to lands their families lost in the 1948 war.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/K. Hamra
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How the Gaza protests against Israel escalated this year
The origin of conflicts in the region could be dated back centuries but this year has seen some key events leading to an escalation in the tension between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza.
Image: Reuters/A. Cohen
Palestinian PM Rami Hamdallah targeted
The convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah of the West Bank-based Fatah group was targeted as he made a rare visit to Gaza on March 13. The Palestinian Authority said it held Hamas responsible, having failed to provide adequate security. Hamas claimed the attack was aimed at hurting efforts to achieve unity and reconciliation.
Image: Reuters/I. Abu Mustafa
Land Day march
Some 30,000 Palestinians took part in the first of the demonstrations on March 30, marking Land Day, named for the 1976 Arab protests against Israeli plans to expropriate land. Some demonstrators ran at the border fence and 16 were killed by Israeli troops with others injured, and some dying later.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Hams
Netanyahu: 'We will hurt them'
Speaking on April 9 in the Israeli town of Sderot, near Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "We have one clear and simple rule and we seek to express it constantly: If someone tries to attack you — rise up and attack him. We will not allow, here on the Gaza border, them to hurt us. We will hurt them."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/G. Tibbon
Protesters injured
Palestinians ran to help a young man injured during the border protest on April 13. Stones had been thrown at border guards and the Israeli troops fired on the demonstrators. Some 45 Palestinians died and hundreds were injured between March 30 and April 27.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Hams
Boy killed on April 20
Protest continued on April 20th, with some Palestinian protesters using kites to transport Molotov cocktails and firebombs over the fence. Israeli snipers killed at least four more Palestinians on April 20th, including a 15-year-old boy. The UN Middle East envoy dubbed the killing "outrageous."
Image: Getty Images/S. Khatib
May 15: US Embassy officially moved to Jerusalem from Tel-Aviv
US President Donald Trump's daugher Ivanka is part of the delegation that opened the new US Embassy in Jerusalem. The transfer of the embassy triggered a fresh wave of protests in which 62 people were killed. The deaths have considerably heightened tensions in the area.
Image: Reuters/R. Zvulun
US no longer seen as partner in Middle East negotiations
As the US celebrated its embassy move from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, Palestinian protests escalated. The events coincided with the 70th anniversary of the foundation of modern-day Israel, and Nakba Day, when Palestinians recall those who fled or were expelled as Israel was established.
Image: Reuters/I. Abu Mustafa
More than 60 people were killed in protests
Palestinians carried away a protester injured on May 15th after demonstrations marking the 70th anniversary of Nakba.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Khatib
Palestinian youths run from tear gas
Hamas official Salah al-Bardaweel said on Palestinian television that all but 12 of the dead were members of Hamas. Mahmoud Abbas the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization is planning to pursue a war crimes complaint against Israel at the International Criminal Court.
Image: Reuters/I. Abu Mustafa
Israeli airstrikes pound Hamas military targets in Gaza
Following an increase in cross-border violence in mid-July, Israel pounded Hamas military targets in Gaza, while Palestinian militants fired more than 170 rockets and mortars into Israel. Two Palestinian boys, aged 15 and 16, were killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to Gaza's health ministry. Three Israelis were injured after a rocket landed on a residential home in the Israeli city of Sderot.
Image: picture-alliance/newscom/I. Mohamad
Israel temporarily closes its Kerem Shalom cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip
Days later, Israel blocked all fuel and gas transfers through the Kerem Shalom crossing with the Gaza Strip for six days "in light of the continued terrorist attempts of Hamas." Israel's defense ministry said essential food and medicine deliveries would still get through. The crossing had been shuttered to commercial trade a week earlier.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot/K. Omar
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On Friday, a 28-year-old Palestinian man died due to Israeli military gunfire in the third consecutive mass protest along the border fence east of Jabalia just north of Gaza City, Gaza's Health Ministry said.
Over 950 Palestinians were wounded on Friday — including 223 who were hurt by live ammunition — while the rest were wounded by tear gas, rubber-coated steel pellets or shrapnel, health officials said. They added that a Gaza journalist was in serious condition after sustaining a bullet wound to his abdomen.
Clashes erupted at several spots as small groups of Palestinian protesters threw stones at Israeli border guards who fired back with tear gas.
Palestinians burn tires at the border fence with Israel, east of JabaliaImage: Getty Images/AFP/M. Abed
Israel's army estimated that around 10,000 Palestinians took part in Friday's protest on the border, the third in a series of mass protests. Organizers encouraged people to walk on a large Israeli flag which had been placed on the ground.
One of the protesters, Sumaya Abu Awad, attended with her three daughters and son: "I am from the village of Hiribya and it is my right to return to it," she told the news agency AFP. "I am not afraid of death because there is no life in Gaza."
Since the protests began on March 30, 34 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces firing live ammunition at the demonstrators on the other side of the border.
Palestinians walk on an Israeli flag to protest their right to return to their homelandImage: Reuters/M. Salem
Palestinian organizers have called the series of protests the "Great March of Return" beginning on Land Day, March 30, and continuing until May 15, the 70th anniversary of the 'Nakba' - or the 'catastrophe' - when 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes and off their land by Israeli forces in 1948.
For Israelis, 1948 marks the year of the creation of their state.
Land Day is named for the 1976 Arab protests in response to the Israeli plans to expropriate land. It is marked each year by Palestinians around the world.
Israel's defense and blockade
Israel has accused Hamas, which governs Gaza, of using the protests as a pretext for violence. The group has been designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union and US.
Palestinians hold posters of Yasser Murtaja, the journalist who was killed by Israeli fire at last week's protestImage: Getty Images/AFP/T. Coex
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the EU have called for an independent investigation into the violence. US Congressman Mark Pocan and four other Democrats issued a statement calling for a nonviolent protest and urged Israeli soldiers to refrain from shooting live ammunition at unarmed Palestinian protesters from hundreds of meters away, across the fence separating the two territories.
"We strongly reject the dangerous contention made on April 8 by Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman that 'there are no innocent people in the Gaza Strip,'" the statement went on. "Media reports suggest that on Friday, Israeli soldiers will once again be ordered by high command — in contravention of international law — to engage in sniper fire on Gaza residents who come within 300 meters of the border fence or engage in other non-life-threatening actions."
The new US Embassy is due to be opened in Jerusalem on May 14. The move from Tel Aviv has angered Palestinians who regard the eastern sector of Jerusalem — which Israel annexed — as the capital of a future Palestine state.
Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade for a decade and unemployment is approaching 50 percent. Electricity is available for only five hours a day.
The border with Egypt has regularly been closed. However, Egypt opened the border on Thursday and it is due to stay open over the weekend.
