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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, April 28, 2018
Israeli forces kill three as youth urged to join 'Great March of Return' protests
Organisers
dedicate Friday demonstration to 'revolutionary youth' as Israeli
forces wound at least seven journalists covering the protests
A young Palestinian carries tyres to burn at the 'Great March of Return' demonstration on 27 April 2018 (MEE/Mohammed al-Hajjar)
Friday 27 April 2018
At least three Palestinians were
killed by Israeli forces as thousands of Palestinians participated in
the fifth Friday of protests in the besieged Gaza Strip as part of the
"Great March of Return."
The protests continue as the UN's
Human Rights Chief slammed the Israeli army for the "deplorable" killing
of at least 43 Palestinians in demonstrations over the past four
weeks.
The Gaza ministry of health said on Friday the two slain Palestinians,
including a man shot in the head in the east of Gaza City. The ministry
could not immediately identify the two.
A
third slain Palestinian was identified by the ministry as 29-year-old
Abd al-Salam Bakr, who was shot east of Khuzaa in the southern West
Bank.
The Ministry also said that more than 600 people were wounded, and included 37 injured from Israeli fire.
Israeli forces were firing live
ammunition and large amounts of tear gas towards demonstrators across
the Gaza Strip throughout the day, an MEE correspondent reported.
In
separate incidents, at least seven journalists were injured by Israeli
forces while covering the protests, according to sources on the ground.
According to MEE's correspondent,
photojournalist Nabil Derbeih was shot in the head east of Jabaliya in
northern Gaza, photographer Hashem Hamada was hit in the head with a
tear gas canister east of Gaza City, while Abd al-Rahman al-Kahlout was
shot in the foot in the same area.
Photographer Mohammed al-Masri
suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation in the Jabaliya area, while
journalists Iyad Abu Ghaza and Hassan Youssef were also reportedly
wounded after being directly targeted with tear gas canisters east of
al-Bureij refugee camp. Meanwhile, Al Mayadeen news channel correspondent Lana Shaheen reportedly fainted after inhaling tear gas east of Gaza City.
Journalist Abd al-Rahman al-Kahlout after being shot in the foot by Israeli forces (MEE/Mohammed al-Hajjar)
A press crew from Palestine TV was also directly targeted by tear gas
canisters, causing the team of journalists to suffer from excessive tear
gas inhalation.
Witnesses said at least two minors were shot in northern Gaza, including a teenage girl shot in the foot.
'The occupation is the mains reason why we have lost hope. We only have our voices to be heard and to break the world’s silence over the violations committed against us. We stand unarmed to peacefully protest in unison for our legitimate right of return'- Anwar al-Salhi, protester
The
Gaza ministry of health also reported that a field clinic east of
al-Bureij was targeted with tear gas, severely affecting four
paramedics.
According to the ministry, at
least 349 Palestinians were wounded as of 6pm local time, including 19
minors and at least eight medics and three journalists.
East of Gaza City and the town of Jabaliya in northern Gaza, protesters
reportedly removed sections of barbed wire put there by Israeli forces
to prevent demonstrators from getting too close to the borderline with
Israel.
A Friday for 'revolutionary youth'
For
nearly a month, demonstrators have been gathering every day several
hundred metres from the fence separating Israel from Gaza, where almost
1.3 million of the small territory’s two million inhabitants are
refugees, to demand the right to return to their pre-1948 homes.
The
planned six-week protest is set to end on 15 May - the 70th anniversary
of the Nakba (Catastrophe), in which more than 750,000 Palestinians
were forced from their homes by Israeli forces during the 1948
Arab-Israeli war.
Youth
groups inside Gaza have backed organisers' calls to dedicate Friday's
protest to "revolutionary youth", and have encouraged young Palestinians
to take part.
The
Israeli army’s Arabic language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, had called on
Palestinian youth to stay home on Friday, a call the demonstrators
rejected.
يحاولون إقناعكم بأوهام الرجولة!! لا يا حبيبي, هذه ليست مسيرة ولا #جمعة_الشباب_الثائر, بل انها #جمعة_الشباب_الضائع.
لا تمنحوا #حماس الفرصة لسلب مستقبلكم بل استغلوا يومكم المقدس بأعمال تفتح أمامكم المستقبل
#مسيرة_الفوضى #مش_عودة_فوضى
Translation: They try to fool you
with illusions of virility! No dear, this is not the Friday of
revolutionary youth, it is the Friday of lost youth. Don't give Hamas
the opportunity to steal your future. Spend your sacred day on actions
that are beneficial for your future. #MarchofChaos
“What
future does Adraee talk about? They destroyed Gaza in 2014, and they
deprive thousands of youth of travelling to receive education and
treatment,” Bashar Abu Ras, 25, told MEE, laughing.
More
than 60 percent of Gaza’s population is under 24, while 56 percent of
Gaza residents between the ages of 15 and 29 are unemployed, the highest
rate of youth unemployment in the world according to the UN.
Palestinians
believe the nearly 11-year Israeli blockade on Gaza - also upheld by
Egypt - has led to deteriorating economic and social conditions in the
tiny coastal territory.
“We
are besieged, we cannot travel to complete our studies abroad because
of the Rafah border crossing (with Egypt) that opens only for
humanitarian cases, and we cannot travel through the Erez checkpoint due
to the Israeli security measures,” Youssef Abu Hashish, 25, told Middle
East Eye, adding that neither he nor two of his friends protesting with
him had found jobs since they graduated from university two years ago,
despite their best efforts.
“This is why we decided to protest, my friends and me," he explained. "This way we get to speak our mind to the occupation.”
Anwar al-Salhi, 29, said he lived from temporary job to temporary job,
sometimes for as little as $7 a day, and was the family’s main
breadwinner as his two brothers were unemployed.
Al-Salhi
said he had had a job opportunity in the southern West Bank city of
Hebron, but lost it when Israel denied him an exit permit.
“The
Palestinian parties have failed us by not being able to reconcile. We
need to stand together against the Israeli occupation that stole our
lands 70 years ago, besieges us, violates our rights, kills our
children, and prevent us from seeing our families in the West Bank,”
al-Salhi told MEE.
“The occupation is the main reason why we have lost hope. We only have
our voices to be heard and to break the world’s silence over the
violations committed against us. We stand unarmed to peacefully protest
in unison for our legitimate right of return.”
At
least four children have been killed and 454 wounded by Israeli forces
as of 23 April, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs said on Friday.
But the US
ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, echoed the Israeli government’s
stance on Thursday by blaming Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza, for "using children as cannon fodder".
She accused the group - which is one of several political parties
supporting the march - of using civilians as human shields in the
protests.
March
organisers have repeatedly denied that Hamas was coordinating the
protests, and have emphasised that the tens of thousands of
demonstrators have been largely peaceful.
Demonstrators
and journalists run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli security
forces near the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis on 27 April 2018
(AFP)
Israel slammed for 'murderous assault'
According
to the Gaza health ministry, 43 Palestinians have been killed by
Israeli forces since the beginning of the march on 30 March, and more
than 5,500 have been wounded. The UN had tallied 42 Palestinian deaths
not including Friday's casualties, including individuals not involved in
the demonstrations.
No Israeli casualties have been reported.
MEE correspondents have repeatedly witnessed Israeli forces targeting paramedics and journalists throughout the demonstrations.
Two Palestinian journalists - Yasser Murtaja and Ahmad Abu Hussein - have been shot and killed since 30 March despite wearing clearly marked press jackets.
The secretary-general for the Democratic Press Association in Gaza, Rami
al-Sharafi, said Israel was sending a message that "every journalist
documenting the truth along the borderline [between Gaza and Israel] is
an Israeli target".
The
Israeli army has rejected repeated pleas by the international community
to use restraint and to conduct an independent inquiry into the deaths,
maintaining the necessity of its open-fire policy.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has called for a global arms embargo against Israel, accusing its forces of “carrying out a murderous assault” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza's health spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement on Thursday that 21 injured Palestinians have had limbs amputated.
Rights group Adalah has
stated that a number of Palestinians had to undergo amputations after
Israeli authorities denied them permits to travel to the occupied West
Bank for treatment, as hospitals in besieged Gaza have struggled to cope
with the number of injuries in the past month.
The UN's high commissioner for human rights meanwhile said on Friday
that Israel must stop the excessive use of force and must hold to
account those responsible for the deaths in the marches.
Zeid Raad al-Hussein said: "The loss of life is deplorable, and the
staggering number of injuries caused by live ammunition only confirms
the sense that excessive force has been used against demonstrators – not
once, not twice, but repeatedly.
"It is difficult to see how children, even those throwing stones, can
present a threat of imminent death or serious injury to heavily
protected security force personnel."
Additional reporting by Amjad Ayman in Gaza.