Thousands of Palestinians protest at the Gaza Strip border, 37 injured

The announcement to renew protests was issued in Gaza after a meeting of representatives of Palestinian groups on Thursday, December 5.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A Palestinian demonstrator uses a sling to hurl stones at Israeli forces during an-anti Israel protest at the Israel-Gaza border fence in the southern Gaza Strip August 23, 2019 (photo credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA / REUTERS)
A Palestinian demonstrator uses a sling to hurl stones at Israeli forces during an-anti Israel protest at the Israel-Gaza border fence in the southern Gaza Strip August 23, 2019
(photo credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA / REUTERS)
Approximately 4,000 Palestinians are protesting at the border with the Gaza Strip on Friday, December 6, after three weeks of Hamas refraining from conducting and financing the demonstrations at the border fence.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 37 people have been injured so far during fence riots, while the IDF is using means to disperse demonstrations against rioters. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, four protesters were shot with live ammunition by IDF forces, while 10 were injured by rubber-coeated bullets. Reports also indicate that a paramedic was injured in the riots.
The injured include 10 children and one paramedic from PRCS, east of the Gaza Strip.
The announcement to renew protests was issued in Gaza after a meeting of representatives of Palestinian groups on Thursday, December 5. The commission urged Palestinians to “preserve the popular and peaceful character” of the protests, and called for wide participation in Friday’s protests.
The decision to resume the weekly border protests came as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders continued their discussions in Cairo with senior Egyptian intelligence officials about reaching a long-term ceasefire with Israel. The Hamas delegation is headed by Ismail Haniyeh, while the PIJ team is headed by the group’s secretary-general, Ziyad al-Nakhalah.
However, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya was quoted on Thursday as saying that reports about an imminent ceasefire agreement with Israel are “inaccurate.” He told the Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar that the talk about a long-term truce “or halting resistance acts against the enemy are completely untrue.” The Hamas official said that “forms of resistance may change, but we won’t stop resisting the enemy.”
Hayya said that the weekly protests will continue because they are a “form of resistance that drains the enemy.” A truce with Israel, he added, won’t “tie the hands of the resistance, and certainly won’t prevent it from responding to any aggression.”