Protests mark first anniversary of the ‘Great March of Return’ demonstrations, with tensions already high after a rocket attack from Gaza and Israeli air strikes earlier in the week
A protestor woman walks toward the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, while others gather to mark first anniversary of Gaza border protests east of Gaza City, Saturday, March 30, 2019.Tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied at the Israel-Gaza border on Saturday, facing off against Israeli tanks and troops on the first anniversary of the ‘Great March of Return’ demonstrations.
Loudspeakers at border protest camps played Palestinian nationalist songs and Hamas, the armed Islamist movement which controls Gaza, had ordered schools to shut for the day to encourage participation. Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said the day had “lots of rioters but significantly less violence”, adding that it showed Hamas was able to stop violence when it wanted to.But many protesters still managed to get near the border and throw stones at Israeli soldiers.Around 200 Gazans have been killed by Israeli troops since the protests started on March 30 last year, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the protest was under close scrutiny at home in the build-up to Israeli elections on April 9.The veteran Israeli leader faces a serious challenge from a centrist party led by a former general and pressure from hawkish allies in his right-wing coalition to be tough on security.
A long-standing Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza is cited by humanitarian agencies as a key reason for impoverishment in the narrow coastal enclave, into which 2 million Palestinians are packed.Hamas leaders said on Saturday progress had been made in the Egyptian talks but that they still had a list of demands from Israel.
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