Death toll in Gaza protests climbs to 22 as both sides brace for ‘Friday of Tires’
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GAZA CITY — The death toll in a week of Palestinian protests along the dividing fence between Israel and Gaza rose to 22 on Friday, as a 30-year-old man died from his injuries and health authorities prepared for more casualties in demonstrations dubbed the “Friday of Tires.”
Thaer Rabaa, 30, was injured a week earlier when Israeli forces used live ammunition and drones carrying tear gas to hold back a crowd that had massed on the border for a “March of Return” to mark Land Day, an annual commemoration of a 1976 protest against Israeli confiscation of Arab-owned land.
That brings the total number of Palestinians killed to 20, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which said it has not included the bodies of two men killed near the fence that Israel says it is holding in its toll.
Last Friday was the bloodiest day of violence in Gaza since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls the 140-square mile stretch of territory. Hamas, which is backing the demonstrations, hopes to sustain them through mid-May, until the anniversary of Israel’s independence and the scheduled date for the United States to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
While most of the tens of thousands demonstrators gathered peacefully last Friday, young men near the border fence threw rocks, Molotov cocktails and burned tires.
The organizing committee overseeing the demonstrations, which includes representatives of major militant factions in Gaza, have said they consider such acts as nonviolent in the face of armed soldiers. Its members say they object to the idea of large-scale burning of tires on Friday, which has caught on over social media, but can do little to stop it.
On Friday morning, numbers gathering near the fence appeared smaller than a week earlier. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have ferried carts of tires to the border fence with Israel in recent days. They say they hope the tires will shield them from Israeli snipers.
On Thursday, some families said they had been discouraged by the idea to burn tires and were thinking twice about bringing their children to the demonstration.
Hamas confirmed Thursday that it was giving compensation to people who were injured — $200 for those lightly injured, $500 for serious injuries and $3,000 to families of those killed — raising concerns that young Palestinians with little to lose will be pushed to risk Israeli fire. Last Friday, some young men said they hoped to be injured so they would be compensated, but were not sure whether they would receive payment.
Some of those risking Israeli fire at the fence say they they have little to lose.
Only a tiny proportion of Gaza’s 2 million residents are granted permission by Israel to leave to travel to other Palestinian areas of the occupied West Bank. While Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, the United Nations says it is still effectively occupied because of the level of control Israel exerts through its restrictions. Israel says they are necessary for security reasons since Hamas, designated by Israel and the United States as a terrorist organization, took control of Gaza in 2007.
Egypt also rarely opens its border, while a rift between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has compounded misery for residents in Gaza over the past year, with salaries to the territory cut.
“Hamas is playing with fire,” said Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, an Israeli army spokesman. “It knows exactly what it is doing. It is trying to turn the area along the border into a battle zone. It is enticing civilians to carry out terrorist acts to destroy the fence.”
At a demonstration point near Gaza City, protesters began burning tires Thursday afternoon, with rock-throwers taking cover behind the thick billowing black smoke. Israeli forces used gunfire and tear gas to keep them away from the border fence.
Israel’s use of live ammunition has drawn condemnation from human rights groups, which say it is illegal under international law. But Israeli politicians have remained defiant, praised their soldiers and have rejected calls from the United Nations for an inquiry. They say that Hamas is attempting to use the demonstrations as a cover for terrorist attacks, pointing to violent incidents on the border, including one shooting attack in northern Gaza on Friday, as proof.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said more than 1,400 Palestinians were injured on Friday, including 758 by gunshots, mostly to the legs. The number is difficult to fully verify, but logs at Gaza City’s main hospital — just one of the medical facilities receiving the injured — showed that 283 people were brought in with injuries from last Friday’s demonstration.
Israel has pointed to violent incidents along the border as evidence of Hamas’s true aims.
An Israeli airstrike Thursday killed an armed Palestinian militant as he approached the security fence, the Israeli military said. Hamas has released photos that purport to show Israeli soldiers on the border within sniper range, sending the message that if it wanted to kill Israeli soldiers, it could.
Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said he was following rhetoric and preparations for Friday’s planned march “with concern.”
“Israeli forces should exercise maximum restraint, and Palestinians should avoid friction at the Gaza fence,” he said.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem launched a campaign calling on Israeli soldiers not to fire at unarmed demonstrators on Friday, taking out advertisements in newspapers.
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