General

✊ SPECIAL NAKBA _ Death toll rises as Palestinians clash with Israel army in Gaza border

Arab News, 14, 2018

Deadliest
day in Israeli-Palestinian conflict since a 2014 war between the Jewish state
and Gaza’s rulers Hamas. Thousands had gathered near the border to protest the
US transfer of embassy to Jerusalem
A Palestinian
man holds a national flag while walking in the smoke billowing from burning
tires during clashes with Israeli forces along the border with the Gaza strip
on Monday, May 14. (AFP)

JERUSALEM:
At least forty-one Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire Monday as tens
of thousands protested and clashes erupted along the Gaza border against the US
transfer of its embassy to Jerusalem, the Gazan health ministry said.

It was
the deadliest day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since a 2014 war between
the Jewish state and Gaza’s rulers Hamas.
With a
White House delegation and Israeli officials set to gather for the inauguration
ceremony, the Gaza clashes had wounded more than 500 Palestinians in addition
to the 28 killed, the Gazan health ministry said.
The dead
included a 14-year-old, according to the ministry.
Thousands
had gathered near the border in protest while smaller numbers of stone-throwing
Palestinians were approaching the fence and trying to break through, with
Israeli snipers positioned on the other side.
Crowds
built throughout the day in the Palestinian enclave less than 100 kilometers
away from Jerusalem and sealed off from Israel by a blockade.
Israel’s
military said “approximately 10,000 violent rioters are currently assembled in
a number of locations along the Gaza Strip border and thousands more are
gathered by the tents approximately half a kilometer away from the security
fence.”
It said
soldiers “are responding with riot dispersal means and fire, and are operating
according to standard operating procedures.”
The
inauguration that follows US President Donald Trump’s deeply controversial
December 6 recognition of the disputed city as Israel’s capital also comes at a
time of heightened regional tensions.
It
follows Trump’s announcement last week that the United States is withdrawing
from the Iran nuclear deal and Israeli strikes two days later on dozens of
Iranian targets in Syria.
Those
strikes came after rocket fire toward Israeli forces in the occupied Golan
Heights that Israel blamed on Iran.
The Trump
administration has vowed to restart the moribund Middle East peace process but
the embassy move has inflamed tensions.
Monday’s
inauguration ceremony at 4:00pm will include around 800 guests — though not
Trump himself — at what until now had been a US consulate building in
Jerusalem.
US Deputy
Secretary of State John Sullivan will lead the Washington delegation that
includes Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, both White
House aides, as well as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.