GAZA, Palestine, July 6 (NNN-WAFA) – At least 50 Palestinians were injured on Friday afternoon, during clashes between hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, medics said.
Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the health ministry in Gaza, told reporters that 50 Palestinians were injured, including 22, who were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers’ gunfire.
The clashes broke out, after hundreds of Palestinians joined the weekly anti-Israel protests and rallies, better known as the Great March of Return and Breaking the Israeli Siege, which began in late March last year.
The highest commission of the marches of return had earlier called on the Gaza Strip’s populations to join the 65th week of marches, to express rejection to the U.S. peace plan, better known as The Deal of the Century.
Eyewitnesses said, the demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, chanted slogans against Israel and the United States and threw stones at soldiers stationed on the border.
However, Israeli media reported that around 5,000 Palestinian demonstrators gathered near the fence of the border, released dozens of arson balloons and threw handmade grenades on the soldiers stationed there.
Local radio stations reported that Israeli soldiers fired dozens of tear gas canisters, metal-coated rubber bullets and live gunshots at the demonstrators.
Since the start of the Great March of Return in late March last year, the Israeli army shot dead 307 Palestinians and wounded by live ammunition more than 17,000 others.
Hamas and other factions, who are members in the commission of the marches of return, are demanding an end to the Israeli blockade that has been imposed on the coastal enclave since 2007.
Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Islamic Hamas movement official, said, the “battle with the occupation (Israel) is opened until the siege is lifted and until the Palestinians get their legitimate rights.”
Al-Hayya, who joined the rallies in eastern Gaza, told reporters that, the marches of return will go on, adding, “we will carry on with our political and popular activities until we reach our goals.”
Meanwhile, the highest commission that organises the marches said that, the Palestinians reject any normalisation between Israel and the Arabs, before resolving the Palestinian cause.
The commission called on the Palestinian factions, mainly President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party and Hamas, to end their feuds and achieve unity, adding, “by unity, we can present settlements and protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.”– NNN-WAFA
