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Gaza rehearses for 1 million at the fence next week, as Israel kills two more men

At the end of nearly 1,000 yards of newly-grown spring grassy turf, a renewed barbed-wire border fence rises three meters up, in anticipation of a million person march next week between Gaza protesters and their well-known antagonist snipers.

A week before the first anniversary of the great March of Return, organizers have pledged larger than usual demonstrations. However, their preparations appeared powerless in yesterday’s renewed protests at Malaka, eastern Gaza City, when hails of Israeli live ammunition and gas canisters killed two Palestinian men and wounded 26 others taking part in weekly demonstrations along the fortified Israel-Gaza border.

Barbed wire has been added to the Gaza fence in anticipation of the one year anniversary of the Great March of Return
Barbed wire has been added to the Gaza fence in anticipation of the one year anniversary of the Great March of Return, March 22, 2019. (Photo: Mohammed Asad)

Jihad Harara, 24, was shot in the head east of Gaza City, while Nidal Shatat, 29, was hit in the chest near the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. They are the latest of 257 people killed since Palestinians launched the weekly border protests on March 30 last year, demanding the right to return to land from which their ancestors were forced to flee during Israel’s founding in 1948.

Shaza Abu Serriah, 16, and Amany al-Qayed, 20, who just join the rally said they seek to affix a Palestine flag on the fence.

Shaza Abu Serriah (right) and Amany al-Qayed
Shaza Abu Serriah (right) and Amany al-Qayed (Photo: Ahmad Al-Kabariti)

The Israeli army did not comment on the deaths but said “approximately 9,500 rioters and demonstrators” gathered in various locations yesterday, “hurling explosive devices, hard objects and rocks” at troops.

“Scared of what?” Amany, a sophomore of social studies, wondered. “We come today to warm up our feelings ahead of the next week. Both women said they were encouraged by their parents to approach the fence. “Once a girl does so, more men will take heart to take down that–not supposed to be–fence,” Shaza told Mondoweiss.

As they spoke, paramedics were seen rushing to carry away those injured a few yards away from the fence, and an angry young amputee protester chanted loudly: “Come on to the Heavens! Come on to your grandfathers’ lands.”

Injured person getting carried away from Gaza fence
Injured person getting carried away from Gaza fence, March 22, 2019. (Photo: Mohammed Asad)

It has become a normal scene to see amputees walking with a crutch or traveling by wheelchair along Gaza streets, beaches or during the ongoing demonstrations.

For more than months, Israeli snipers have targeted one part of the body more than any other – the legs.

Of the 15,000 protesters treated at hospitals and field clinics in Gaza so far, at least 6,000 have been struck in the lower limbs, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry last December.

Injured youth is treated at a demonstration at the Gaza fence, March 22, 2019.
Injured youth is treated at a demonstration at the Gaza fence, March 22, 2019. (Photo: Mohammed Asad)

Also on Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Council condemned Israel’s “apparent intentional use of unlawful lethal and other excessive force” against civilian protesters in Gaza, and called for perpetrators of violations to face justice.

In a surprise visit, Ismail Haniya, chief of the Islamist group Hamas which runs the enclave, urged Palestinians to attend mass rallies on Saturday to mark one year since protests began.

“We will not retreat and whoever thinks that we may retreat a single step backward before achieving our goals is wrong,” Haniyeh said.

The Israeli press is echoing the sense of urgency in Gaza. Alex Fishman of the Israeli paper Yediot Ahronot pressed Israelis to acknowledge Palestinian conditions.

The West Bank is at a boiling point, the Palestinian economy is weak and the motivation for terror attacks high, and now Hamas is planning its biggest demonstration ever to mark the anniversary of the ‘March of Return’; Israel fears events may spin out of control with dozens of casualties and a possible military confrontation.

The only way to stave off this frightening scenario is to implement the partial understandings reached between Egypt, Israel and Hamas. Most of the subject matter was found to be acceptable by both sides. Israel agreed to allow Hamas to expand the Gaza fishing zone to 12 nautical miles from the Gaza coast and allow the UN to fund the employment of some 90,000 Gazans currently without work. Israel also agreed to provide Gaza with additional electricity capacity.

On the ground in Gaza, Musa Abu al-Hatal, a 31-year-old unemployed math graduate, was watching the Friday crowds and marvelling at the “stance of maze,” as he characterized the life of Gaza.

“Being in Gaza means that your mind brainstorms itself constantly over the political situation. They (Israelis) threaten, and we (Palestinians) respond with bluster. It seems a non-ending boxing round and no one from outside wants to be a referee.”

Shooting a sling shot at the Gaza fence, March 22, 2019. (Photo: Mohammed Asad)
Shooting a sling shot at the Gaza fence, March 22, 2019. (Photo: Mohammed Asad)

Musa said, “I guess next week, thousands of stretchers will be full of injuries and dead, and the same number of crutches will be used by new victims.”

Injured youth is treated at a demonstration at the Gaza fence
Injured youth is treated at a demonstration at the Gaza fence, March 22, 2019. (Photo: Mohammed Asad)
Demonstration at the Gaza fence, March 22, 2019. (Photo: Mohammed Asad)
Demonstration at the Gaza fence, March 22, 2019. (Photo: Mohammed Asad)
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“Joe Truzman, an expert on “Palestinian” terrorist groups active on the Gaza border with Israel, has disproved major points in the recently released U.N. Human Rights Council report—namely, that many of the report’s “victims” shot by soldiers of the Israeli Defense Force were actually members of terrorist groups, including Hamas.
The British Foreign Secretary’s has affirmed that the United Kingdom would vote against all Item 7 resolutions at the U.N. Human Rights Council, saying, “The U.N. Human Rights Council has proven time and again their implacable opposition to Israel, and this shapes so much of their work, including institutionalizing their day against Israel in the standing agenda Item 7—a form of victimization they impose on no other country.”
Refer Experts Reveal Lies: UN Knew of Terrorist Activity on Gaza Border, but Did Not Report It

@Mayhem: What does being a “member” of Hamas mean? Hamas not only fires rockets into Israel, it organizes welfare activities for the residents of Gaza. As far as I’m aware, you can be a medic or a teacher or an accountant and be a member of Hamas – being a member doesn’t mean you are automatically carrying a Kalashnikov.

Furthermore, merely being a member of Hamas doesn’t automatically qualify you for being shot by Israeli snipers. And for that matter, exactly how are the Israeli snipers determining – presumably through their rifle scopes – just exactly who is a member?

Further furthermore, there were clearly many people at the demonstrations who are NOT members of Hamas. The whole Hamas thing is getting absurd.

The world needs to identify the shooters and the chain of command, and hunt these war criminals down into their 90s as Israel did with book keepers at Auschwitz. I want to see a Palestinian Simon Wiesenthal emerge to hound these murderous war criminals to the end of the earth. Kidnap them from Israel to face tribunals in The Hague! Let’s see hundreds of movies highlighting this genocide. Let’s see these murderers homes bulldozed and confiscated.

“Being in Gaza means that your mind brainstorms itself constantly over the political situation. They (Israelis) threaten, and we (Palestinians) respond with bluster. It seems a non-ending boxing round and no one from outside wants to be a referee.”

Perhaps brainstorming with others could lead to tactics that may have a chance of putting Netanyahu on the defensive. Clearly, he incites confrontation as a way of control, keeping the American political establishment behind him.

6000 shot in the legs and with little prospect of getting more electricity and Haniyeh says bluster on at full speed. It’s becoming apparent that throwing things undermines the chance of achieving political goals. I fear bluster and thinking with the heart will be ineffective at contending with thinking with the mind.

When someone comes up with a plan to direct all the energy and gusto in a political savvy direction we could see an evolution.

” a plan to direct all the energy and gusto in a political savvy direction”

We can’t say what that “political savvy direction” might be, but it must be there, and the Palestinians must have overlooked this opportunity for an opportunity.