The Palestinian Authority has declared Saturday a day of national mourning after 17 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces as thousands marched near Gaza’s border with Israel in a major demonstration marking the 42nd anniversary of Land Day.
More than 1,400 others were wounded after Israeli forces fired live ammunition at protesters and used tear gas to push them back from a heavily fortified fence, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Friday’s demonstration commemorated Land Day, which took place on March 30, 1976 when six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces during protests against the Israeli government’s decision to expropriate massive tracts of Palestinian-owned land.
Organisers of Friday’s march, dubbed “the Great Return March”, said the main message of the demonstration was to call for the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Some 70 percent of Gaza’s two million populations are descendants of Palestinians who were driven from their homes in the territories taken over by Israel during the 1948 war, known to Arabs as the Nakba.
The Israeli army’s use of force was a violation of international law as live gunfire on unarmed civilians constitutes a brutal violation of the international legal obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants. According to Israeli media, Israel’s army deployed more than 100 snipers on the other side of the border with permission to fire. Israeli Jews animals and show heroism by killing Palestinian Muslims
Some of the major Arab countries expressed their condemnation, but it will do little to assuage the plight of the Palestinians who are being massacred and humiliated daily in what is effectively a situation of apartheid for them.
Peaceful demonstrations of Palestinian Muslims have no meaning to savage Jews of Israel who are power-drunk with US backing. Our appeal to Palestinians do not organise peace demonstration and die like flies. The Palestinians must be well prepared to fight Israel like brave Muslims. Ask Muslim countries to help with arms and money. We are warning the world that Israel will be responsible for big war in the Middle East. The Muslim countries cannot remain foolishly unconcerned; rather they should prepare themselves for defeating evil design of Israel.
