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Tear Gas and Clashes as Palestinians Rally Near Gaza Border Fence With Israel Protest at Gaza Fence Is Mostly Peaceful as Both Sides Urge Restraint
(about 4 hours later)
GAZA — Israeli troops fired tear gas and live rounds on Saturday at small crowds of Palestinian activists who had approached the border fence with Israel as tens of thousands of people gathered to commemorate the anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, killing one and wounding 13 others, according to Palestinian medical officials. NAHAL OZ, Israel — Tens of thousands of Palestinians returned to the borderland between Gaza and Israel on Saturday for a largely peaceful protest marking the first anniversary of demonstrations that have frequently led to violent clashes with Israeli troops.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers had pledged to keep the crowds at a safe distance from the fence as Egyptian mediators tried to cement a cease-fire agreement. Dozens of volunteers in fluorescent vests were deployed to restrain demonstrators. Ambulances lined up in front of clinics and police supervised encampments erected far from the fence. Orange-vested Palestinians kept most of the demonstrators far from the fence, and Israeli soldiers mostly held their fire, in what by the evening appeared to be a mutual attempt at minimizing casualties.
But as the crowds swelled throughout the afternoon in response to Hamas’s calls for a large turnout, dozens of protesters approached the fence, unfurling Palestinian flags and throwing rocks and explosives toward Israeli soldiers positioned nearby. The Israeli forces responded with tear gas and live fire to disperse the crowds. But hundreds of protesters still made it to the fence, some hurling homemade bombs, drawing live fire from Israel. Three Palestinians were reported killed.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said that a 17-year-old protester was killed immediately after being shot in the face in East Gaza City. After a round of violence on Monday that began when a rocket fired from Gaza wounded several Israelis north of Tel Aviv and ended after Israel spent a day pounding targets in Gaza, the Israeli military had prepared for an escalation this weekend, moving tanks, artillery and four brigades of soldiers to the Gaza border.
The Israeli military estimated 40,000 Palestinians had gathered at the marches. But neither side was eager for a new war, least of all Israel, which is 10 days away from elections. Egyptian intermediaries worked with both sides to keep the situation from boiling over, and Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza, deployed scores of people in orange vests to keep most demonstrators at least 300 yards from the fence, the distance Israel had demanded as a buffer.
“The rioters are hurling rocks and setting tires on fire. In addition, a number of grenades and explosive devices have been hurled at the Gaza Strip security fence,” it said in a statement. It said soldiers had responded with “riot dispersal means” and firing in line with standard procedures. There was also some suggestion that Israel might offer concessions in exchange for a peaceful protest. Hamas officials said vaguely that Gazans would soon reap benefits. On Saturday morning, the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesman said on social media that peaceful protests would be rewarded.
Earlier on Saturday, Gaza health officials said Israeli troops had shot and killed a Palestinian man, Mohammed Saad, 21, near the perimeter fence, hours before the mass rally began. Gaza’s Health Ministry said he had been hit in the head by shrapnel. The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu made no mention of any deal but issued a statement thanking the military for “the aggressive activity and massive preparations that helped bring about calm.”
The Israeli Army said that about 200 Palestinians had “rioted during the night along the fence” and that the army had used crowd dispersal means against them. While neither side offered specifics, it appeared that their efforts were having some success in curtailing violence.
Saturday’s protest came at a sensitive time for both Israel and Hamas. There were skirmishes at the fence, parts of which Israel had fortified in advance of Saturday’s anniversary with steel plates topped by tall, heavy wire-mesh fencing, and bunkers built atop large earthen berms, where hundreds of snipers were positioned.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is seeking his fourth consecutive term in the country’s April 9 elections, but he is facing a serious challenge from a group of former army chiefs who have criticized what they say is his failed Gaza policy. Tear gas canisters arced across from Israeli jeeps, and dozens of homemade bombs were thrown from the Gaza side. But the violence was nothing like it has been at times in the year since the start of the protests, dubbed the Great March of Return.
In the final stretch of the campaign, Mr. Netanyahu needs to keep the Israel-Gaza frontier quiet without seeming to make concessions to Hamas. He was heavily criticized this past week for what was seen as a soft response to renewed rocket fire out of Gaza. The Israeli military, while welcoming the reduced violence, took the de-escalation as proof of its assertions that the tone of the protests was entirely dictated by Hamas.
Hamas, meanwhile, faces growing unrest in Gaza as a result of worsening conditions after more than a decade of Israeli and Egyptian border closings. “It’s clear that Hamas controls the level of violence,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman. “When they want less violence, we see that they can keep people back from the fence. And when they want more violence, they get more violence.”
The fence protests, which began a year ago, have been aimed in large part at breaking the Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza, but have not delivered major improvements. The yearlong protest has had several objectives. It was aimed above all at ending the years-old Israeli-led blockade of Gaza, which has restricted the movement of people and goods in and out of the territory and blockaded its access to the Mediterranean. The protest also focused on Palestinians’ demands to return to their ancestral lands in what is now Israel. But it has mainly served to draw international attention to the Israel-Palestinian conflict at a time when that has been hard to come by.
Fouad Aishan, 40, said came with his five children to the frontier to show them the Israeli soldiers and to return to safety before the protest started. Israel made a point before Saturday of cautioning its soldiers against taking shots that might hit unintended targets, the kind that Israeli officials acknowledged had killed a Palestinian medic, Rouzan al-Najjar, last June, one of some 196 people killed in the protests.
“I come here driven by personal national motivation,” he said. “It has nothing to do with what the politicians do.” In addition, the military said it was experimenting with new forms of nonlethal crowd control, including a device that essentially fires a rifle-shot of sound at a target.
The marches near the fence began a year ago, initially organized by grass-roots activists who were calling for a mass return to their ancestors’ homes in what is now Israel. About two-thirds of Gaza’s two million people are refugees or descendants of refugees who had fled or had been forced from their homes during the war surrounding Israel’s establishment in 1948. But soldiers did use live ammunition during the most recent protest. The Gaza Health Ministry reported three fatalities: Mohammed Jehad Saad, 20; Adham Nedal Amara, 17; and Tammer Abu al-Kheir, 17. More than 200 people were injured, the ministry said, including 46 by gunshots.
Hamas quickly took the lead in the protests, using the gatherings to call for an easing of the blockade. At the largest protest site, east of Gaza City, where nearly 10,000 people had gathered by early afternoon, participants lit campfires and brewed tea, a band played and a troupe danced the debka, a traditional Palestinian dance.
The blockade, imposed after Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, has devastated Gaza’s economy. Unemployment is over 50 percent, ground water has become undrinkable and electricity has turned into an intermittent luxury. There were early signs this would be a relatively tame day, including a noticeably large presence of Hamas security and intelligence officers, and the placement of vast public tents some 700 yards from the fence, more than twice the distance from the barrier as on previous protest days.
The border marches routinely ended in confrontations, with some of the Palestinian demonstrators burning tires, hurling fire bombs or setting off explosives and Israeli troops firing live rounds and tear gas. Vague promises of Israeli concessions were not enough for everyone, however.
According to a Gaza rights group and a count by The Associated Press, 196 Palestinians were killed in the demonstrations over the past year, including 41 minors, and thousands were wounded by live fire. An Israeli soldier was also killed in the context of the marches. “We don’t want the blockade lifted partially,” said Umm Wael, 45, a teacher. “We want it lifted completely. Lift the blockade or martyrdom.”
Egypt has repeatedly tried to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, stepping up efforts in recent days after a rocket from Gaza struck a house in central Israel earlier this week, injuring seven Israelis and threatening to escalate tensions. And Muhammad al-Serhi, 34, who has a part-time job at a dessert shop and said he came to the protests to escape the “suffocation” he feels at home, said he was in the dark about what was happening.
Palestinians with knowledge of the talks have said that as part of the proposed deal, Gaza protesters were to keep away from the fence Saturday and Israeli troops were to hold their fire. “We only hear that there are solutions,” he said. “I will believe that there are solutions when the borders are open, when there are job opportunities.”
Under the Egyptian plan, Israel would offer economic incentives for Gaza in exchange for calm, according to Palestinian officials.
Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, said the group had received “positive signs” from the Egyptians. He added that the Egyptian team was to return to Israel on Sunday to continue the talks. “We will continue our marches until all our goals are achieved,” he said.
This month, Hamas quelled what have been portrayed as the fiercest protests yet against its mismanagement and failure to improve the internal economic situation.
Hamas blames the blockade and punitive measures by its West Bank-based rival, the Palestinian Authority, for worsening the living conditions.