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Live: Gaza marks year of protests

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Live: Gaza marks year of protests
Palestinians demonstrate on Land Day and anniversary of the Great March of Return
Key Points
Tens of thousands protest in Gaza
Palestinians across Israel and West Bank also mark Land Day
Four Palestinians killed

Live Updates

4 years ago

A second Palestinian has been killed east of Gaza City, according to the health ministry.

Adham Amara, 17, died after being wounded in the face, the ministry said in a statement.

4 years ago

A Red Cross ambulance has been hit by an Israeli teargas cannister and the number of wounded Palestinians is rising.

A wounded Palestinian in Gaza's Malaka (MEE/Mohamed Asad)
A wounded Palestinian in Gaza's Malaka (MEE/Mohamed Asad)
Palestinian protesters in Gaza's Malaka (MEE/Mohamed Asad)
Palestinian protesters in Gaza's Malaka (MEE/Mohamed Asad)
A Palestinian protester throws a rock in Gaza's Malaka (MEE/Mohamed Asad)
A Palestinian protester throws a rock in Gaza's Malaka (MEE/Mohamed Asad)
4 years ago

MEE has been speaking to some protesters in Gaza.

Attallah al-Feeyomi, 19, is in Malaka, east of Gaza City, where he previously lost a leg after being shot by Israeli forces.

“We are here to break the siege on the Gaza Strip and call on the occupation to leave our lands. They have weapons, tanks, planes and guns that are internationally prohibited. We have our rocks.”

Iktimaal Hamad says Palestinian women are at the forefront of the cause and the protests.

“The Palestinian woman has brought forth something so precious and valuable for the sake of the Palestinian cause, and will always be on the frontlines confronting the challenges, confronting the plots that she is exposed to,” she tells MEE.

She says Palestinian women have gathered to tell the international community it must break its silence.

“The people deserve the right to live, the right to protect their land, the right to return.”

4 years ago

Israeli forces have begun heavily firing teargas at protesters east of Gaza's al-Burij refugee camp, despite it being more than 300 metres away from the boundary fence, a Middle East Eye correspondent at the scene reports.

In a statement, a copy of which was sent to MEE, the interior ministry in Gaza said it had deployed security staff around all the roads and alleyways leading to the protest camp in order to make sure that the protesters do not approach the fence and the demonstrations keep calm.

Palestinian protesters flee from tear gas fumes near the frontier with Israel in Malaka east of Gaza City (AFP)
Palestinian protesters flee from tear gas fumes near the frontier with Israel in Malaka east of Gaza City (AFP)
4 years ago

Palestinian factions have sent out repeated messages encouraging the protests but calling for restraint.

The anniversary has come as Egypt again tries to broker a long-term ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, and experts believe the Palestinian movement is keen that a deal is not scuppered.

“We want to cut short the way ahead of the Israeli occupation, which always blames the Palestinian resistance groups for the failure of reaching a truce and easing the more than decade-old siege imposed on Gaza,” Khaled al-Batsh, an Islamic Jihad leader and member of the march’s organising committee, said on Thursday, calling on protests to remain peaceful.

Gaza’s interior ministry said on Saturday it has deployed 8,000 members of the security, police and emergency services around Gaza.

“Our message on this day: we are with our people,” the ministry tweeted.

4 years ago

Ahmed Abu Artema, protest leader and co-founder of the Great March of Return, never expected his idea to grow from a Facebook post into a historic movement.

Writing in Middle East Eye, the Palestinian peace activist said he "could never have anticipated the slumbering behemoth that I awoke".

In a column marking the anniversary, Abu Artema outlines some of the Great March of Return's achievements. Here's an excerpt:

"The significance of the march cannot be understated. It is symbolic of the intent of the Palestinian people to peacefully continue to fight for our undeniable right of return. It sends a message that millions of refugees, spread around the globe, must return home. This is their right; it must no longer be treated as an academic exercise or a theoretical question. It is practically achievable and must be treated as such."

Follow this link to read the rest of "Gaza’s Great March of Return: Coming together to end a dark era of injustice"

4 years ago

Following prayers, Palestinians are massing along Gaza's 65km-long boundry with Israel.

A woman holds a Palestinian flag east of Gaza City (Reuters)
A woman holds a Palestinian flag east of Gaza City (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a demonstration near the frontier with Israel in Malaka east of Gaza City (AFP)
Palestinians gather during a demonstration near the frontier with Israel in Malaka east of Gaza City (AFP)
A Palestinian boy carries national flags at a demonstration near the border with Israel in Malaka east of Gaza City (AFP)
A Palestinian boy carries national flags at a demonstration near the border with Israel in Malaka east of Gaza City (AFP)
4 years ago

It has been 365 days since the Great March of Return began.

The protests, calling for an end to Israel's 11-year siege of the Gaza Strip and the right of return for Palestinians expelled from their homes in what is now Israel, has transformed from a six-week movement into roiling, weekly demonstrations.

They have also been deadly. From the beginning, the Israeli army has cracked down on the overwhelmingly peaceful protestors. Ahead of Saturday, 197 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army during the protests and 29,000 wounded, according to the UN.

Already today there has been a fatality. Mohammad Jehad Saad, 20, died from a shrapnel wound from Israeli tank fire east of Gaza City, Gaza's health ministry announced this morning.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are expected to protest along Gaza's frontier with Israel. Meanwhile, Palestinians in Israel and the occupied West Bank will be demonstrating to mark Land Day, where Palestinians rail against Israeli persecution and assert their connection to land in historic Palestine.

Middle East Eye will be following events across Gaza, Israel and the West Bank throughout the day.