Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Gazans bury the dead after bloodiest day in years

1293501
1293501
minus
plus

GAZA CITY: Gazans buried their dead on Saturday with calls for “revenge” a day after a major demonstration led to clashes that saw Israeli forces kill 16 Palestinians in the bloodiest day since a 2014 war.


But while anger seethed over Friday’s events, only several hundred protesters had returned to tents erected at different sites near the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel by mid-afternoon to resume demonstrations planned to last six weeks in the blockaded enclave.


Thousands attended funerals for 14 of those killed — two were buried on Friday — with mourners holding Palestinian flags and some chanting “revenge” and firing into the air.


The armed wing of Hamas, that runs the Gaza Strip, said that five of those killed were members who were participating “in popular events side-by-side with their people.”


“Where are you, Arabs? Where are you, Muslims?” mourners chanted at one funeral, calling on the Arab and Muslim world to intervene.


A general strike was also being held in both the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.


Minor clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians broke out in Hebron, while a small protest was held in Nablus, both in the West Bank.


Israel defended its soldiers’ actions on Friday, when troops opened fire on Palestinians who strayed from the main tent city protest — attended by tens of thousands — and approached the heavily fortified fence cutting off the Gaza Strip.


The Israeli military says it opened fire only when necessary against those throwing stones and firebombs or rolling tyres at soldiers. It also said there were attempts to damage the fence and infiltrate Israel, while alleging there was an attempted shooting attack against soldiers along the border that caused no casualties.


Palestinians accused Israel of using disproportionate force, while human rights groups questioned Israel’s use of live fire.


Unverified videos were being shared online, including one appearing to show a protester being shot while running with a tyre. UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an “independent and transparent investigation.”


In addition to the 16 killed, more than 1,400 were wounded, 758 of them by live fire, with the remainder hurt by rubber bullets and tear gas inhalation, according to the Gazan health ministry.


Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas declared on Saturday a day of national mourning and in a speech said he held Israel fully responsible for the deaths.


His spokesman on Saturday called on the United States at the UN Security Council to not provide “cover for Israel to continue its aggression against the Palestinian people.”


“If it continues, we shall have no choice but to respond inside the Gaza Strip against terrorist targets which we understand to be behind these events,” Brigadier General Ronen Manelis told journalists.


The six-week protest is in support of Palestinian refugees and the timetable holds significance for a range of reasons that have added to tensions.


It began on Land Day, when Palestinians commemorate the killing of six unarmed Arab protesters in Israel in 1976, and as Jewish Israelis readied to observe the Passover holiday, which started at sundown on Friday.


Protests will continue until the United States opens its new Jerusalem Embassy around May 14, a move that has provoked deep anger among the Palestinians, who see the city’s annexed


eastern sector as the capital of their future state. — AFP


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon