GAZA BORDER, April 13, 2018 - Israeli troops yesterday shot and wounded 30 Palestinians during a large protest on the Gaza-Israel border in which demonstrators hurled stones and burning tyres near the frontier fence, Palestinian medics said. Some in the Gaza crowd threw firebombs and an explosive device, according to the Israeli military. Thousands of Palestinians arrived at tented camps near the frontier as a protest dubbed "The Great March of Return" - evoking a longtime call for refugees to regain ancestral homes in what is now Israel - moved into its third week. Israeli troops have shot dead 30 Gaza Palestinians and wounded hundreds since the protests began, drawing international criticism of the lethal tactics used against them. Yesterday, groups of youths waved Palestinian flags and burnt hundreds of tyres and Israeli flags near the fenced-off border after Friday prayers. At one camp east of Gaza City, youths carried on their shoulders a coffin wrapped in an Israeli flag bearing the words "The End of Israel". Israel has declared a no-go zone close to the Gaza border fence, and deployed army sharpshooters along it. Human rights groups told Reuters that the Israeli military has used live fire against demonstrators who pose no immediate threat to life. The protest began on March 30, and is expected to culminate on May 15. That is the day Palestinians will mark the 70th anniversary of the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe", when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced amid violence culminating in war between newly created Israel and its Arab neighbors in May 1948. Successive Israeli governments have ruled out any right of return, fearing the country would lose its Jewish majority. "Some people believe we are idiots to think the Israelis will allow us in, they may not, but we will not stop trying to return," said a protester, 37-year-old civil servant Ahmed, as he stood on a hilltop overlooking the Israeli fence. Like most of the 2 million Palestinians packed into the tiny, impoverished Gaza Strip, Ahmed is a descendant of refugees from Jaffa, a coastal town in Israel just south of Tel Aviv. "No peace, no jobs, no unity and no future, so what difference would death make? If we are going to die, then let it not be in vain," said Ahmed, who refused to give his full name, fearing Israeli reprisals. The marches have been organized by Hamas, but large turnouts on two preceding Fridays were also driven by desperation among the territory's 2 million residents. Gaza has endured a border blockade by Israel since Hamas overran the territory in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliament elections. The blockade has driven Gaza deeper into poverty, with unemployment approaching 50 per cent and electricity available for less than five hours a day. The marchers are protesting against the blockade, but are also asserting what they say is a "right of return" of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel. Several thousand people gathered Friday at a tent camp east of Gaza City. The camp was decked out in Palestinian flags. At the entrance, organizers had laid a large Israeli flag on the ground for protesters to step on. In the camp, 37-year-old construction worker Omar Hamada said he is protesting to draw world attention to Gaza and get the border reopened. "We want to live like everyone else in the world," he said. "We came here so the world can see us and know that life here is miserable, and that there should be a solution." Hamada was critical of Hamas, saying the group has set back Gaza by decades, but added that "this is the reality and we have to deal with it."
