The
Israeli military on Saturday night identified 10 of the 15 people
reported
killed during violent protests along the Gaza security fence
as members of
Palestinian terrorist groups, and published a list
of their names and positions
in the organizations.
On
Friday, some 30,000 Palestinians took part in demonstrations along the Gaza
border, during which rioters threw rocks and firebombs at Israeli troops on the
other side of the fence, burned tires and scrap wood, sought to breach and
damage the security fence, and in one case opened fire at Israeli soldiers.
The army
said that its sharpshooters targeted only those taking explicit violent action
against Israeli troops or trying to break through or damage the security fence.
Video footage showed that in one case a rioter, whom the army included in its
list of Hamas members, appeared to be shot while running away from the border.
The army in response accused Hamas of editing and/or fabricating its videos.
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According
to the Israel Defense Forces (Arabic link), eight of the men killed were
members of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. One served in the al-Aqsa
Martyrs’ Brigades, and another was affiliated with “global jihad,” it said,
apparently referring to one of the Salafist groups in Gaza.
Earlier
on Saturday, Hamas publicly acknowledged that five members of its military
wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, were among the fatalities.
The army
did not provide evidence for its identifications. Most could be independently
verified with photographic evidence of the operatives wearing uniforms or
receiving a military-style funeral from the terror group in question. Others
could not be immediately substantiated. At least one appears to be partially
incorrect.
The IDF
identified Hamdan Abu Amsha as belonging to Hamas, yet in his funeral he was
wrapped in a flag belonging to a different terrorist group, Fatah’s Al-Aqsa
Martyrs’ Brigades, and a Fatah-affiliated Twitter account claimed him as “our
martyr.”
Palestinians
carry the body of Hamdan Abu Amsha, said killed a day earlier by Israeli fire
during a mass border protest along the security fence, in Beit Hanoun in the
northern of Gaza Strip, on March 31, 2018. (AFP/ MAHMUD HAMS)
The army
said that at least one of the Hamas members, Sari Abu Odeh, was part of the
group’s elite Nukhba force and that another, Muhammad Abu Amro, served in its
tunnel operations. (The IDF’s Arabic spokesman provided more details in Arabic via
Twitter.)
The IDF
identified one of the two Hamas members who shot at Israeli soldiers on Friday
evening and attempted to breach the security fence, before they were shot dead,
as 23-year-old Mussa’b al-Saloul.
Gaza’s
Hamas terrorist rulers released these images of members of its military wing
who it acknowledged were among 15 Gazans it said were killed by Israeli fire
during clashes along the security fence on Friday, March 30, 2018.
Palestinian
media reported that the bodies of the two gunmen were captured by Israeli
soldiers. The IDF would not officially comment on this claim.
The
oldest operative identified was Jihad Farina, 35, a company commander in
Hamas’s military wing; the youngest was 19-year-old Ahmad Odeh, who served in
the terror group’s Shati Battalion, the army said.
Palestinians
hurl stones toward Israeli soldiers during a protest near the Gaza Strip border
with Israel, in eastern Gaza City, Saturday, March 31, 2018. (AP/ Khalil Hamra)
Hamas
claimed those killed were taking part “in popular events side-by-side with
their people.”
Thousands
attended funerals in Gaza Saturday for 14 of those killed — two were buried on
Friday — with mourners holding Palestinian flags and some chanting “revenge”
and firing into the air.
“Where
are you, Arabs? Where are you, Muslims?” mourners chanted at one funeral,
calling on the Arab and Muslim world to intervene. A general strike was held in
both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
IDF
Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said on Saturday that all those killed were
engaged in violence, adding that Gaza health officials exaggerated the number
of those wounded and that several dozen at most were injured by live fire while
the rest were merely shaken up by tear gas and other riot dispersal means.
Manelis
said on Friday evening that the army had faced “a violent, terrorist
demonstration at six points” along the fence. He said the IDF used “pinpoint
fire” wherever there were attempts to breach or damage the security fence. “All
the fatalities were aged 18-30, several of the fatalities were known to us, and
at least two of them were members of Hamas commando forces,” he said.
The
Palestinians’ march to Gaza’s border with Israel on Friday was the largest such
demonstration in recent memory, calling for Palestinians to be allowed to
return to land that their ancestors fled from in the 1948 War of Independence.
It was dubbed the “March of Return.”
A picture
taken on March 30, 2018 shows Palestinians taking part in a demonstration
commemorating Land Day near the border with Israel east of Gaza City.
(AFP/Mahmud Hams)
The death
toll from Friday’s protest was provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry,
which also added that some 1,400 Palestinians were injured during the protests,
over half by live rounds. Israeli authorities have no way to independently
confirm the casualty reports.
Manelis
warned Saturday that if violence drags on along the Gaza border, Israel will
expand its reaction to strike the terrorists behind it. The military has thus
far restricted its response to those trying to breach its border, but if
attacks continue it will go after terrorists “in other places, too,” he said.
Manelis
reiterated that Israel “will not allow a massive breach of the fence into
Israeli territory.”
He said
that Hamas and other Gaza terror groups were using protests as a cover for
staging attacks. If violence continues, “we will not be able to continue
limiting our activity to the fence area and will act against these terror
organizations in other places too,” he said.
Hamas is
an Islamist terror group that seeks to destroy Israel. It seized control of
Gaza from Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah in a violent coup in 2007.
Hamas
leader Yahya Sinwar (C) shouts slogans and flashes the victory gesture as he
takes part in a tent city protest near the Gaza border on March 30, 2018 to
commemorate Land Day. (AFP PHOTO / Mohammed ABED)
The army
has remained on high alert even as the violence appeared to abate Friday
evening, amid fears of persisting attacks, including infiltration attempts and
rocket fire.
Protest
organizers have said mass marches would continue until May 15, the 70th anniversary
of the establishment of the State of Israel. Palestinians mark that date as
their “nakba,” or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands left or were forced
to leave during the 1948 War of Independence. The vast majority of Gaza’s two
million people are their descendants.
At
previous peace talks, the Palestinians have always demanded, along with
sovereignty in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Old City, a “right
of return” to Israel for Palestinian refugees who left or were forced out of
Israel when it was established. The Palestinians demand this right not only for
those of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who are still alive — a figure
estimated in the low tens of thousands — but also for their descendants, who
number in the millions.
No
Israeli government would ever be likely to accept this demand, since it would
spell the end of Israel as a Jewish-majority state. Israel’s position is that
Palestinian refugees and their descendants would become citizens of a
Palestinian state at the culmination of the peace process, just as Jews who
fled or were forced out of Middle Eastern countries by hostile governments
became citizens of Israel.
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