Israeli troops kill seven Palestinians on day of heightened Gaza border protests-medics

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

 

A Palestinian demonstrator uses a sling to hurl stones during clashes with Israeli troops at the Israel-Gaza border at a protest demanding the right to return to their homeland, in the southern Gaza Strip April 6, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

 

GAZA BORDER (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead seven Palestinian protesters and wounded at least 200 along the Israel-Gaza border on Friday, Gaza medical officials said, raising the death toll to 27 in the week-long disturbances.

 

They said the demonstrators, including two teenage boys aged 16 and 17, were killed at protest sites along the frontier during a round of daily demonstrations that has been dubbed "The Great March of Return".

 

The day of violence, which saw bigger Palestinian crowds than in recent days but not as large as when the demonstration began last Friday, calmed down as night descended.

 

Gazans, including Palestinian refugees and their descendants seeking to regain ancestral homes in what is now Israel, have set up tent encampments a few hundred metres (yards) inside the 65-km (40-mile) fence that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip.

 

Large groups of youths have ventured much closer to the no-go zone along the barrier, risking live fire from Israeli troops to roll burning tyres and throw stones.

 

"Israel took everything from us, the homeland, freedom, our future," said Samer, a 27-year-old protester who would not give his full name, fearing Israeli reprisals. "I have two kids, a boy and a girl, and if I die, God will take care of them."

 

The number of protesters on Friday was larger than in recent days, but lower than the outset of the disturbances on March 30, when 17 Palestinians were fatally shot by Israeli forces. The Israeli military estimated Friday's turnout at around 20,000.

 

Refugees comprise most of the 2 million population of Israeli-blockaded Gaza, an enclave ruled by the Islamist movement Hamas which calls for Israel's destruction and is designated by Western states as a terrorist organisation.

 

Many of those killed were militants, said Israel, which stationed sharpshooters on the frontier to stop Palestinians attempting "any breach of the security infrastructure and fence, which protects Israeli civilians".

 

WAR OF WORDS

 

David Keyes, an Israeli government spokesman, accused Hamas of having instigated violent protests along the border.

 

"This is a travesty for the Palestinian people that the Hamas government is encouraging its people to attack Israel, it is encouraging its people to commit acts of violence," he said.

 

Hamas's Gaza leader, Yehya Al-Sinwar, spoke at a protest encampment to praise those who turned out to confront the "enemy who besieges us". He said the demonstrations would continue, telling the crowds: "We will uproot the borders, we will pluck out their hearts, and we will pray in Jerusalem."

 

Earlier, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem urged protesters to keep the rallies peaceful. "Maintaining the peaceful nature of the protests will strike all fragile Zionist propaganda," Qassem said in a statement.

 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who holds little sway in Gaza, condemned what he described as Israel's "acts of killing and oppression conducted...against the peaceful uprising."

 

Israel's response to the protests has drawn international criticism, with human rights groups saying it involved live fire against demonstrators posing no immediate threat to life.

 

The demonstrators have revived a longstanding demand for the right of return of Palestinian refugees to towns and villages which their families fled from, or were driven out of, when the state of Israel was created.

 

The Israeli government has ruled out any right of return, fearing that the country would lose its Jewish majority.

 

Palestinian youths burnt Israeli flags and planted Palestinian banners on dirt mounds beside tented encampments as others arrived on large trucks carrying piles of more tyres to burn. Others launched stones with slingshots.

 

With Israeli tear gas rising into the air, Palestinian youths used T-shirts, cheap medical masks and perfume to try and protect themselves. Israel tried to douse the burning rubber with jets of water directed over defensive dirt mounds on its side of the border.

 

A U.N. human rights spokeswoman urged Israel to exercise restraint against the Palestinian protesters. “We are saying that Israel has obligations to ensure that excessive force is not employed. And that if there is unjustified and unlawful recourse to firearms, resulting in death, that may amount to a wilful killing,” Elizabeth Throssell said in Geneva.

 

Israel says it is doing what it must to defend its border and that its troops have been responding with riot dispersal means and fire "in accordance with the rules of engagement".

 

The Palestinian deaths have elicited scant concern in Israel, which has been the target of thousands of rocket strikes from Gaza over the past few years.

 

Palestinian militant groups have also dug tunnels under the border fence to smuggle weapons, and to launch attacks.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-04-07

 

 

The Palastinians will never change ,instead of getting on and building a better country for themselves like Israel did ,they prefer to riot and burn and be manipulated by Hamas . Then blame all their problems on Israel

Ahh the  poor victim  lies continue. I offer a different version from the other side;

 

Arab refugees of the jewish religion, and their descendants seeking to regain ancestral homes , lost assets, and compensation for the stripping of their citizenship and forced expulsion, from the arab world cannot set up tent encampments a few hundred metres (yards) inside their former homeland borders because the Arabs who forced them out and stole their property and assets would massacre them. As well, the Arab world refuses to acknowledge that the Jews who were removed at gunpoint and under threat fo death from the Arab world have any rights since they are not muslim.

 

"The Arab countries  including such beacons of  freedom such as Iraq, Algeria, Egypt and Libya, took everything from us, the homeland, freedom, our future," said Shlomo Ben BigMouth a 27-year-old protester who would not give his full name, fearing Arab sympathizer reprisals. "I have no kids yet, because I am a responsible adult and do not expect anyone/or anything else to take care of them, although it would be nice to receive billions of Euros in payments so I do not have to work or build my  future".

 

 

Sorry to say it but the protesters are now literally attempting to invade the border. They had a PR victory in the previous days but now by amplifying their aggression with full knowledge the IDF policy is to shoot they've blown most of that previous PR win. Talk about dying in vain. Their anger and frustration is well understandable but they do indeed act as terrorists now.

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Here we go again, a hoard of misguided youth being
sent to their death by it's leadership that doesn't care,
deliberately feeding them with false hopes and wishful
thinking of going back to the their homes of yore 70
years ago, there're causes worthwhile fighting for and
if need be sacrificed all for it, this is not one of those causes
and sadly, there's no one to tell them otherwise... 

Perhaps we should void Israel's 'get out of the jail' holocaust card and start judging the violent nation by their current actions. I don't understand why USA keep on supporting the North Korea of the Middle East?

 

"Yaser Murtaja, a 30-year-old Palestinian photojournalist from Gaza, has reportedly succumbed to his wounds after being shot in the abdomen by Israeli forces"

 

 

 

@oilinki

 

There is no "we". There is no "get out of jail" card. There is violence from both sides of the fence. And, of course, equating Israel with North Korea is just the usual baiting hogwash. Not that the rest isn't. Troll harder.

 

 

3 minutes ago, Morch said:

 

@oilinki

 

There is no "we". There is no "get out of jail" card. There is violence from both sides of the fence. And, of course, equating Israel with North Korea is just the usual baiting hogwash. Not that the rest isn't. Troll harder.

 

 

We all know that US vetoes pretty much everything opposing Israel's policies at UN.

 

Perhaps it's time for EU along with other nations to place sanctions against Israel without currently impossible UN resolution. 

 

Israel and North Korea are both nuclear weapons powered bad boys in their neighborhoods.

 

 

10 minutes ago, oilinki said:

We all know that US vetoes pretty much everything opposing Israel's policies at UN.

 

Perhaps it's time for EU along with other nations to place sanctions against Israel without currently impossible UN resolution. 

 

Israel and North Korea are both nuclear weapons powered bad boys in their neighborhoods.

 

 

 

Your premise assumes the UN is even-handed, objective and unbiased. I beg to differ. The US (at least before the current administration) objected and vetoed motions which were overly biased or singled out Israel, often without reference to neighbors. Granted, the current administration carries this to an extreme, sometimes objecting even more than Israeli representatives.

 

Perhaps it's time for certain posters to stop fantasizing. EU sanctions are not likely to materialize any time soon (unless, maybe, if Israel crosses certain obvious red lines). There is no unity of thought on this issue within the EU, and as for "other countries" - even less so.

 

Yes, Israel and North Korea both possess nuclear weapons. That still doesn't make Israel similar to North Korea. Unless you're into one of your bouts of nonsense trolling, that is.

 

 

4 hours ago, oilinki said:

Perhaps we should void Israel's 'get out of the jail' holocaust card and start judging the violent nation by their current actions. I don't understand why USA keep on supporting the North Korea of the Middle East?

 

"Yaser Murtaja, a 30-year-old Palestinian photojournalist from Gaza, has reportedly succumbed to his wounds after being shot in the abdomen by Israeli forces"

 

 

Boo hoo. Did you see my post above? Why don't you address that? Why aren't you addressing the longstanding suffering of  nearly 800,000 arab refugees? Is it because they are jews and you believe them unworthy of redress? Did you ever stop to think that those 800,000 are  a large part of the reason why there isn't any room for you preferred arab group?

Isn't it strange that the ramping up of the Corbyn slur of antisemitism has occurred just before this latest escalations? Now it feels like we are to be classed as antisemitic to raise protesting comments against the "Jewish  solution " to combat the Arab protests. Just seems to be a very convenient timing for those with something at stake. Its also very odd the attention afforded by Blair and his interests in the middle east in support of the Jewish/American historic interventions against a people that can't rest for the memory of 70 years of hell to a once peaceful land.

2 minutes ago, jonstarjon said:

Isn't it strange that the ramping up of the Corbyn slur of antisemitism has occurred just before this latest escalations? Now it feels like we are to be classed as antisemitic to raise protesting comments against the "Jewish  solution " to combat the Arab protests. Just seems to be a very convenient timing for those with something at stake. Its also very odd the attention afforded by Blair and his interests in the middle east in support of the Jewish/American historic interventions against a people that can't rest for the memory of 70 years of hell to a once peaceful land.

Not as "strange" as the illogical twists and turns you made in that post. 

"Lest we forget"...
If the Americans and British didn't wade in 1948 and award and reenforce the Jews to a position so clearly dominant over the Palestinians in Jerusalem we wouldn't be seeing this situation we see today. My father fought during this period and suffered for it. He saw all the pent up rages in acted by the stern gang to name a few. All the dispossessed families broken by that single order. Of course much of the dirty deals done during that transition hidden from our view despite the 70 years that have passed. In the last few years of his life my father carried a Dictaphone recording what he had seen in Jerusalem. Its not pretty listen. After my mother passes I will make efforts to bring these events to light. Not before I would never want my mother to know what he was ordered to do or the reasons why. I am NO Muslim extremist support or excuser.. But there are lots of questions, the Americans and British political forces of the time, must answer!

Yes i agree.but that was 70 years ago we cannot blame Israel now for what happened then just like we cannot blame Germany for what happened in world war 11. We have to move on .but Palastein does not want to they just hate the Jews end of

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7 hours ago, oilinki said:

Perhaps we should void Israel's 'get out of the jail' holocaust card and start judging the violent nation by their current actions. I don't understand why USA keep on supporting the North Korea of the Middle East?

 

"Yaser Murtaja, a 30-year-old Palestinian photojournalist from Gaza, has reportedly succumbed to his wounds after being shot in the abdomen by Israeli forces"

 

 

 

So you think Israel is a family dynastic dictatorship pretending to be socialist democracy run on traditional communist dictatorship lines do you?

 

Finland had close relationship with Nazi Germany when it suited so that might explain your desire to whitewash over the holocaust. 

 

 

 

7 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

So you think Israel is a family dynastic dictatorship pretending to be socialist democracy run on traditional communist dictatorship lines do you?

 

Finland had close relationship with Nazi Germany when it suited so that might explain your desire to whitewash over the holocaust. 

No. I say North Korea acts like a school bully and so does Israel.

 

I wasn't fighting in WWII so what did happen then, is not my burden nor glory. I doubt you were fighting that war either. You might also want to increase a bit knowledge what happened during those years, way up north.

 

 

 

 

how ?
 
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/09/israel-bds-blacklist-apartheid-uk-war-on-want

Sorry dont read papers that nobody believe and have to beg for cash to keep going

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8 minutes ago, i claudius said:

Sorry dont read papers that nobody believe and have to beg for cash to keep going

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It doesn't matter what the source is. The fact is the Palestinians are kept like rabbits in a cage by the Israelis and you say why don't they rebuild? Maybe you should read more...........

It doesn't matter what the source is. The fact is the Palestinians are kept like rabbits in a cage by the Israelis and you say why don't they rebuild? Maybe you should read more...........

They get a fortune in foreign aid where does it go.the Isralies after the war spent theirs rebuilding.but they did not have the likes of Hamas leading them and unlike the Muslims did not live on hate


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Quote

 

It's Not Netanyahu. It's the Nation

Most Israelis, who have never spoken to a single Gazan, only know that the Gaza Strip is a nest of terrorists. That’s why it’s OK to shoot them. Shocking? Yes, but true

 

.....

A straight line of evil and racism runs from the Gaza border to Tel Aviv. In both cases Israelis don’t see human beings in front of them. The Gazan and Eritrean are one and the same – subhuman. They have no dreams, no rights and their lives are worthless.

 

 

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-this-is-the-nation-1.5976946

4 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

Boo hoo. Did you see my post above? 

I browsed through the previous posts. I didn't read your post.

4 hours ago, midas said:

It doesn't matter what the source is. The fact is the Palestinians are kept like rabbits in a cage by the Israelis and you say why don't they rebuild? Maybe you should read more...........

 

Oh, sources do matter, unless you believe everything you read, and assume all authors are unbiased and bereft of agendas. And that's the short version.

 

As for the rest - the blockade on the Gaza Strip is there for a reason. Namely - Hamas actions, agenda and policies regarding Israel. There was no such blockade in the past. Ignoring Hamas (and other organizations, like Islamic Jihad) violence as a factor in this equation is nothing but wilful ignorance, if not an outright attempt to mislead.

 

Further, Hamas routinely rejects solutions involving oversight of imports to the Gaza Strip, thus limiting supplies. When such oversight was agreed upon, Hamas breached understandings and commitments. Supplies were diverted to Hamas military wing projects, rather to reconstruction and development. When it comes to energy - most of the issues are down to squabbling and power plays between Fatah and Hamas.

4 hours ago, oilinki said:

 

 

 

 

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-this-is-the-nation-1.5976946

 

And that's suppose to count for? The author makes a living posting bile and hate, riling against pretty much anyone (even other left-wingers not deemed extreme enough). That he airs yet another rant is neither here nor there. Sort of a production line thing. One up every 2-3 days. If these are what ou're basing your comments on, or if that's where you go for "support", quite telling.

10 hours ago, midas said:

It doesn't matter what the source is. The fact is the Palestinians are kept like rabbits in a cage by the Israelis and you say why don't they rebuild? Maybe you should read more...........

Waste of time responding to the member - history of really nasty posts including welcoming downing at sea of Muslims and so on

Posts against forum rules have been removed,

13 hours ago, oilinki said:

 

 

 

 

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-this-is-the-nation-1.5976946

Oy veh, I don't believe this.

You reading and quoting from that "newspaper" says something, if not a lot, about you or your state of mind.

An anti government paper.

 

SSDD 

 

 

4 hours ago, simple1 said:

Waste of time responding to the member - history of really nasty posts including welcoming downing at sea of Muslims and so on

 

Cuts both ways. Bit of a kettle pot black (not you personally, posters mentioned).

21 hours ago, jonstarjon said:

Isn't it strange that the ramping up of the Corbyn slur of antisemitism has occurred just before this latest escalations? Now it feels like we are to be classed as antisemitic to raise protesting comments against the "Jewish  solution " to combat the Arab protests. Just seems to be a very convenient timing for those with something at stake. Its also very odd the attention afforded by Blair and his interests in the middle east in support of the Jewish/American historic interventions against a people that can't rest for the memory of 70 years of hell to a once peaceful land.

Isn't it strange that Syria and Russia have just used chlorine poison gas on the civilian residents of Dhouma causing horrific injuries upon CHILDREN and no one lambasting Israel in its legal defense of its legal  uncontested border with Gaza has anything to say.

 

You are living proof of antisemitism. Nary a word mentioned when  your hero Putin aids and abets Assad of Syria in the use of ILLEGAL poison gas, but lots of condemnation  for Israel which has acted to defend itself from a foreign aggressor attempting to breach its border.

 

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar joined mass protests along the Gaza border last Friday. In his message to the  protestors to “eat the livers" of those besieging Gaza. Oh yes, very responsible behaviour from the man who rules Gaza. And yet the antisemites expect Israel to just throw open their borders to maniacs like Sinwar who wants his arabs to rip open Israelis and eat their livers.  In the Walking Dead, Zombie Land and other zombie  films where zombies eat the flesh of their victims, the zombies can only be  stopped with a bullet or blunt force to the head.

It appears that Israel may have to do the same if confronted with crazed arabs who are intending to eat their  livers.

 

 

 

On 4/7/2018 at 7:23 AM, midas said:

It doesn't matter what the source is. The fact is the Palestinians are kept like rabbits in a cage by the Israelis and you say why don't they rebuild? Maybe you should read more...........

Kept like rabbits in a cage? Hello? Gaza is under their control. They can move about their paradise. If they weren't so busy launching terror attacks on Israel, they might be able to have easier access entering Israel. Why do you expect the Gaza Arabs to have easy access into Israel anyway? Do you think Israelis have easy access into an Arab country? Do you think most Thais have easy access into  an EU country or the USA?