Clashes erupted as tens of thousands of Gazans marched near the Israeli border in a major protest, with 16 Palestinians killed and hundreds more wounded in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s worst single day of violence since the 2014 Gaza war.
Israel’s military targeted three Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip with tank fire and an airstrike after what it said was an attempted shooting attack against soldiers along the border that caused no injuries.
Protesters, including children, gathered at multiple sites throughout the blockaded territory, which is flanked by Israel along its eastern and northern borders. Smaller numbers approached within a few hundred meters of the heavily fortified border fence, with Israeli troops using tear gas and live fire to force them back.
Israeli security forces used a drone to fire tear gas toward those along the border, in one of the first uses of the device, a police spokesman said.
The Gaza health ministry said that 16 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces.
More than 1,400 were injured, including 758 by live fire, with the remainder hurt by rubber bullets and tear gas inhalation, it said.
Palestinians accused Israel of using disproportionate force, as did Turkish authorities.
The UN Security Council on Friday held emergency talks to discuss the risks of further escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip, but failed to agree a joint statement on the deadly clashes.
“There is fear that the situation might deteriorate in the coming days,” UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Taye-Brook Zerihoun said, urging maximum restraint.
The Israeli Defense Forces said that the main protests were being used as cover by militants to either break through the border or carry out attacks.
“It is not a peaceful demonstration,” an Israeli military official told reporters.
The army said it estimated that about 30,000 demonstrators were taking part in the protests.
“Rioters are rolling burning tyres and hurling firebombs and rocks at the security fence and at [Israeli] troops, who are responding with riot dispersal means and firing toward main instigators,” it said.
Protesters demanded that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War be allowed to return to areas in Israel. Hamas Politburo Chairman Ismail Haniyeh attended the protest, believed to be the first time he has gone so close to the border in years.
Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, the most recent of which in 2014 ended with a fragile truce.
The demonstration is planned to last six weeks, until the inauguration of the new US embassy in Jerusalem on about May 14. The upcoming embassy move has added to tensions surrounding the march.
The protest also began as Jewish Israelis were to mark the first day of the Passover holiday.
Israel announced a “closed military zone in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip,” accusing the Muslim militant Hamas government of using the lives of civilians “for the purpose of terror.”
“Hamas’s leadership is playing with your life,” Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman said in a tweet directed to Gazans in Hebrew and Arabic.
Protests along the border are common, but the “March of Return” protest is different because it is intended to include families with children camping near the border for weeks.
Protester Saeed Juniya erected a small tent a few hundred meters from the border fence east of Gaza City, where he was accompanied by his wife and children.
“We are determined and not scared, as we are not doing something wrong. The people are demanding their land and to return to their country,” he said.
Organizers have said the camps will remain in place until May 15, when Palestinians commemorate the Nakba or “catastrophe” of the 1948 creation of Israel, with the exodus of more than 700,000 Palestinians.
Washington plans to launch its new embassy to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the foundation of Israel, further stoking Palestinian anger.
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