Palestinians stream toward Gaza border in defiance of Israel

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Thousands of Gaza residents flocked to the nearest possible point on the Gaza-Israel border on Friday in the second week of mass demonstrations, dubbed the “Great Return March”, to express their right to return to their homeland in what is now Israel.

The demonstrators burned hundreds of old tires, covering the sky in big black smoke and blocking the view of the Israeli snipers stationed on the barbed border. Ten people were killed, including a Palestinian journalist, and over 1,000 injured by gunfire from the Israeli army, health officials in Gaza said.

Samer, 23, one of the participants in the protests against the Israeli army in Gaza Strip border, before igniting tires, April. 6, 2018. /CGTN Photo

The protestors gathered in five tent encampments along the border which organizers had set up from north to south, and performed Muslim noon prayer. Samer, 23, from Khanyunis in the southern Gaza Strip explained how he and his friends had gathered hundreds of old tires to burn on the “Friday of Tires”.

“The world is turning its back to us, and nobody cares about our issues any more. Our political leaders can’t do anything either. So we have decided to take the initiative to face off the Israeli army in our own way, and we will continue to do so until we reclaim our rights.”

Palestinian Red Crescent medical workers as they were transporting injuries from the Gaza Strip border to hospitals, April. 6, 2018. /CGTN Photo

Hamas leader Yehya Al-Sinwar told a crowd at the demonstration site in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip that the Return March has a first-level national status that must be highly maintained.

He added that the conspiracy of blockades and starvation has failed to make the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip turn against the resistance. “We tell the whole world that Gaza is free, and will take the Palestinian cause to square number 1”, he said.

Zeina Al-Jarf , an 87-year-old Palestinian refugee, originally from Jaffa, holds the key to her original home in Jaffa, April. 6, 2018. /CGTN Photo

Zeina Al-Jarf , an 87-year-old Palestinian refugee originally from Jaffa, attended Friday’s rally despite her old age. Zeina told CGTN that she was displaced from her hometown when she was 17. “I still have the key to my home there, my mum and dad died in Gaza waiting to return to Jaffa, and I want to return to Jaffa to die there.”

Seemingly, Palestinians in Gaza regard demonstrations near the Israeli border to be one of the legitimate tools of resistance against the Israeli occupation which has gained wide support locally and internationally.

A protester carrying the flag of Palestine passes between smoke billows, east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, April. 6, 2018. /CGTN Photo

For them, these peaceful protests have helped the Palestinian cause return to the front, and possibly find solutions for their successive crises, especially after President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last December, and his proposed “Deal of the Century" peace plan for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which will offer nothing but more of their lands to Israel.

Overall, the Palestinians consider the “Great Return March” which began its activities on March 30, as a rolling snowball. They aim to continue to face off with the Israeli occupation forces over the course of six weeks, and gradually escalate their protests up to May 15, which marks the 70th anniversary of Nakba (catastrophe Day, when dozens of thousands of Palestinians where forced to leave their homes and villages in 1948.

On May 15, the rallies are expected to reach their peak, and possibly thousands of Palestinians will try to storm the Israeli border toward their occupied lands.

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