For nearly six months now, Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip have been staging weekly demonstrations along the border between Gaza and Israel—protests they call the “Great March of Return.”
For nearly six months now, Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip have been staging weekly demonstrations at points along the border between Gaza and Israel—protests they call the “Great March of Return,” which demands that Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to their lands in present-day Israel. Every Friday since March 30, large and small groups of protesters approach the border fence under the watch of Israeli soldiers on the other side. Every Friday, Palestinians set tires ablaze, fly Palestinian flags, and chant slogans. Sometimes they throw rocks, fly incendiary kites to set fields ablaze, or lob tear-gas canisters over the fence—and sometimes they attack the fence itself with bolt cutters and hatchets. Every Friday, Israeli soldiers respond with tear gas and rubber bullets—sometimes live ammunition—to disperse, warn, injure, or kill those who get too close to the fence. United Press International quotes the Gaza Health Ministry as saying that “more than 178 Palestinians have been killed since the protests began March 30.”
