GAZA, Palestine, Oct 19 (NNN-WAFA) – At least 69 Palestinians were injured on Friday, during clashes with Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza Strip, along the border with Israel, medics said.
Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the Health Ministry in Gaza told reporters that, 69 Palestinian demonstrators were injured, of whom 26 were shot by Israeli soldiers’ live gunfire in eastern Gaza Strip.
Clashes broke out on Friday afternoon between hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers, during the weekly anti-Israel protests, also known as the “Great March of Return.”
The weekly marches and protests have been going on since Mar 30, last year, calling on Israel to end more than 12 years of tight blockade that Israel has imposed on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The Gaza demonstrators waved Palestine flags, approached the fence of the border with Israel, chanted slogans against Israel and threw stones and homemade hand grenades on the soldiers and their vehicles, stationed on the border.
The Health Ministry in Gaza earlier said that, since the weekly protests started, at the end of Mar last year, the Israeli army had killed 312 demonstrators and wounded more than 19,000 by live gunfire.
Hamas officials in Gaza stressed that, the participation of the popular masses of demonstrators “is to show that the Palestinian people are sticking to getting their legitimate rights by resistance.”
They said that, keeping the marches going, “shows the failure of the (Israeli) occupation, to defeat the protests or stop it,” adding, “the marches insist that the unfair siege must be lifted and the Palestinians must get their rights.”– NNN-WAFA