Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza participated in protests across the besieged coastal enclave on Saturday, March 30th, to mark the one year anniversary of the Great March of Return.
Gaza’s hospitals have been thrown into crisis once again, as they face another massive fuel crisis. Gaza’s health ministry says they need 300,000 liters of fuel as soon as possible to avoid the shutdown of several hospitals. Among those who are the most vulnerable are children on dialysis, who are facing a struggle to survive.
The Gaza Strip is famous for its strawberries, which used to be exported all around Israel, Palestine, and the world. But as a result of Israel’s blockade on Gaza, which is entering its 12th year this year, strawberry farming is dying out.
Earlier this month, health officials in Gaza announced that they would be stopping chemotherapy treatments for cancer patients due to a shortage of medicine. As a result, the lives of thousands of cancer patients were thrown into uncertainty. Doctors, rights groups, and the patients themselves have pointed chiefly to the more than decade-long Israeli blockade of Gaza as a reason for the shortages.
Last week, Egyptian President Abd al-Fatah al-Sisi announced the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza for the entire month of Ramadan, which he said was “in order to ensure the easing of the burdens on the brothers in the Gaza Strip.” Mondoweiss spoke to several Palestinians — students going abroad to study or in search of jobs, people traveling to reunite with families, and injured protesters seeking treatment in Jordan — as they waited for their chance to leave Gaza. The journey out of Gaza is far from simple, as only a select number of Palestinians with permission are allowed to leave.
Doctors in Gaza have expressed concern that protesters in the “Great March of Return” have been targeted in the legs by Israeli live fire. Mondoweiss visits the Médecins Sans Frontières clinic in Gaza to hear who doctors and meet the injured Palestinians whose lives have been changed forever.
As the Great March of Return enters its fourth week, Nabeel Diab of the National Commission to Break the Siege of Gaza tells Mondoweiss: “The Palestinian people are eager to achieve their freedom, their independence, and their right to return to the villages where they were forced out of 70 years ago.” Diab is a member of a grassroots organization of activists who helped plan the march. He says that Israeli government claims that the protests are Hamas-led “are lies, and are defamatory statements that have no basis in reality.” Diab tells Mondoweiss: “This march is the embodiment of popular action involving children, women, and involving all the Palestinians that refuse to accept the occupation of our land.”
On March 30th, thousands of Palestinians from across the besieged Gaza Strip launched “The Great March of Return,” to demand their right to return to their pre-1948 homelands in historic Palestine. Since then, at least 29 Palestinian protesters have been killed, including a journalist and at least two minors. In this video, Palestinians who are putting their lives on the line to join the protests in Gaza explain why they are taking such a risk.