{"id":64302,"date":"2018-04-28T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-28T06:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=64302"},"modified":"2018-04-28T06:00:52","modified_gmt":"2018-04-28T06:00:52","slug":"plan-storm-fence-gets-bloody-preview-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/plan-storm-fence-gets-bloody-preview-gaza.html","title":{"rendered":"Plan to Storm Fence Gets Bloody Preview in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plan to Storm Fence Gets Bloody Preview in Gaza<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

For weeks, Palestinians protesting along the fence between Gaza and Israel have conjured up the idea of swarming across the barrier, a mass of tens of thousands of people too numerous for Israeli soldiers to arrest or even to shoot.<\/span><\/p>\n

And Israelis have been worrying aloud about what their soldiers would do in response.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday, both sides got a small sense of what that could mean when hundreds of Palestinians, urged on by a Hamas leader in a fiery midafternoon speech, rushed the security barrier at the eastern edge of Gaza City and tried to cross into Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dozens made it through a barbed-wire barrier about 30 yards inside Gaza territory, deploying wire cutters, hooks and winches. Israeli troops opened fire with a mix of live ammunition and rubber bullets, killing three people and wounding nearly 1,000 more, according to Gaza health officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the first time we\u2019ve seen this kind of synchronized and focused attack on the fence, and it\u2019s something we are not going to tolerate by any stretch,\u201d said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the Israeli military. \u201cIt was a very swift move, and it seemed to be very focused. It looked as if they were disregarding the danger that they were facing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The protest was the fifth in a series of demonstrations organized by Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza. It has succeeded in ways that firing missiles into Israel has not, drawing international sympathy and attention to the Palestinian cause and the claims of the right of return for Palestinian refugees into what is now Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

The protests are expected to continue for three more weeks, and with neither side giving ground they appear to be headed for more violence. Already more than 40 people have been killed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Early Saturday, Israel said its fighter jets had struck six naval targets belonging to Hamas in Gaza in retaliation for the attacks on the barrier fence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The breach of the fence was no mere protest: Those assaulting it threw firebombs and rolled burning tires at the fence to try to melt it; at least some carried pistols, according to both the Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four Palestinian protesters said they saw two men with handguns fire at Israeli soldiers and then flee. The soldiers threw a hand grenade in response, the witnesses said, wounding other people, two of them critically.<\/span><\/p>\n

These accounts could not be verified and two other Palestinians disputed them, saying the people with handguns did not fire them. The Israeli military did not confirm that it had been fired on.<\/span><\/p>\n

A 21-year-old man who gave his name only as Ahmed said he had seen five men shot as they pulled away part of the barbed-wire barrier, which amounts to the Israelis\u2019 first line of defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

When some were shot, others came forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the first time in five weeks of protests, some reached the second barrier \u2014 an electrified, sensor-laden fence that marks the edge of Israeli territory \u2014 and tried to climb it or pull it down. A few hundred yards beyond it lies the Israeli farming community of Nahal Oz.<\/span><\/p>\n

[300 meters in Gaza: A look at the security fence dividing Israel and Gaza.]<\/span><\/p>\n

Ibrahim Shahin, 26, said he was among a group of about 12 men who cut through the barbed wire and then began climbing the electrified fence. He said he saw an Israeli soldier firing \u201crandomly\u201d at the group and added that three men were shot in the head. Another, he said, was shot in the abdomen and wounded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of them, his last breath was on my shoulder,\u201d Mr. Shahid said, his T-shirt soaked in blood.<\/span><\/p>\n

One Israeli soldier threw a grenade at the group, he said. Asked how he had avoided injury, he added, \u201cI was lucky.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The protest is meant to culminate on May 15, when Palestinians mark the 70th anniversary of the Nakba \u2014 the \u201ccatastrophe\u201d of Israel\u2019s establishment and of the displacement of hundreds of thousands of their forebears who were expelled or fled from their homes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hamas has called the protests peaceful, despite the Molotov cocktails thrown at Israeli soldiers and firebombs attached to kites that are routinely sailed over the fence, setting fires to Israeli farmland. Israel, defending its use of deadly force, has described the protests as riots that could turn into an invasion at any time.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Israeli military acknowledged that it was surprised by the speed and tenacity of the assault, and by its location.<\/span><\/p>\n

Colonel Conricus said that Friday\u2019s crowds totaled 12,000 to 14,000. Around 5 p.m., when the protest seemed to be winding down uneventfully, he said, \u201cbetween 500 and 700 rioters assaulted the fence in a way that we have not seen them assault it before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He said the effort to breach the fence \u201cshows exactly what we are talking about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a peaceful demonstration,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing serene about this. They\u2019re trying to infiltrate into Israel, damage our infrastructure and kill Israelis.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Reminded that Israel\u2019s critics have denounced the country for attacking unarmed demonstrators with deadly force, Colonel Conricus said: \u201cThey aren\u2019t the ones defending Israeli citizens from a hateful mob of thousands of Palestinians. It doesn\u2019t matter if someone is carrying flowers if he\u2019s tearing down the fence. That\u2019s a violent threat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s demonstration at the eastern edge of Gaza City \u2014 adjacent to the old Karni Crossing, a cargo terminal that allowed goods to cross between Israel and Gaza until it was shut down in 2011 \u2014 had been largely peaceful until late in the afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then the senior Hamas leader Ismail Radwan gave a rousing speech, urging the protesters not to fear death but to welcome martyrdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we are brave, we are getting closer toward martyrdom, martyrdom, martyrdom,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thousands began streaming toward the barrier fence, setting off a tremendous barrage of tear gas from the Israeli side that did not deter many.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Radwan thundered on: \u201cWe say to Nikki Haley, to Netanyahu, to the criminal Lieberman\u201d \u2014 referring to the United States ambassador to the United Nations, the Israeli prime minister and Israel\u2019s defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman \u2014 \u201cwe are afraid neither of death nor of martyrdom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/04\/27\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-protest-israel.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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