Photo: AP / Khalil Hamra
Gaza medical officials said that at least 12 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more were injured by Israeli security forces that were confronting one of the largest demonstrations along the Israel-Gaza border in recent years on Friday, according to Reuters.
Tens of thousands showed up for the protest which called for a right of return for refugees to what is now Israel across five locations along the 65-km (40 mile) frontier.
The Israeli military estimated that the number of protesters was above 30,000.
Tents have been erected along the fence for the six-week protest, with many families present along the Israeli security barrier.
However, as the day progressed, Israeli soldiers warned that Palestinian youths were not listening to calls from Gazan organizers and the Israeli soldiers to stay away from the frontier where snipers were keeping watch from dirt mound embankments.
The Israeli military said that it used “riot dispersal means and firing toward main instigators," after some protesters began “rolling burning tires and hurling stones” at the border fence and at soldiers.
An Israeli military official said that live fire was only used against protesters that were trying to sabotage the border security force and claimed that two of the dead were Hamas operatives.
Palestinian health officials said that Israeli forces used gunfire, tear gas, and rubber bullets against the protesters; noting that two people were killed by tank fire.
The Gaza Health Ministry said that the military also used a drone to deploy tear gas in at least one location.
One of the 12 was only 16-years-old and at least 400 were wounded by live gunfire, being struck by rubber bullets, or receiving treatment for tear gas inhalation.
The protest was launched on what's known as "Land Day," an annual commemoration of the deaths of six Arab citizens that Israeli security forces killed during protests over government land confiscations in northern Israel in 1976.
However, the focus of the march was to call on Israel to provide Palestinian refugees the right of return to the towns and villages which their families fled from, or were driven out of, when the state of Israel was created in 1948.
Israel has long been against any right of return out of fears that allowing the return would create an influx of Arabs would eliminate its Jewish majority, and says that refugees should resettle in a future state that Palestinians seek in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.
However, peace talks between the two have been stalled since 2014.
The protests began on Good Friday and the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover and will culminate on May 15, the day which Palestinians commemorate what they call "Nakba," or "Catastrophe" when the Israeli state was created.
The organizers of the protest include Hamas and representatives of other Palestinian factions.
The Israeli military released a statement which claimed Hamas was “cynically exploiting women and children, sending them to the security fence and endangering their lives."
Major General Eyal Zamir, head of Israel's Southern Command, said that his forces identified "attempts to carry out terror attacks under the camouflage of riots."
Hamas, which advocates for Israel's destruction, had called on protesters to maintain a "peaceful nature" during the march.
There were also several smaller protests held in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where around 65 Palestinians were injured.
Israel has blockaded the coastal territory after withdrawing troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 over security concerns and has maintained tight controls on the movement of Palestinians and goods along the frontier.
Egypt also keeps its border with Gaza largely closed as it fights against an Islamist insurgency in neighboring Sinai.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
