GAZA CITY: Violent clashes erupted along the Gaza Strip’s border ahead of the controversial opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, leaving 37 Palestinians martyred while nearly 2,000 wounded from Israeli fire and hundreds wounded in the conflict’s bloodiest day in years.
It was the bloodiest day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since a 2014 Gaza war.
According to reports, death toll rises to 78 following latest series of casualties resulted by firing of Israeli forces against the Palestinian protestors demonstrating near the fence.
The clashes took place as a White House delegation and Israeli officials gathered for the embassy inauguration ceremony in Jerusalem.
At least 41 Gazans were martyred and nearly 2,000 wounded during demonstrations that are part of a weeks-long protest calling for the right of return for Palestinian refugees to the areas they were forcibly expelled from in 1948.
The dead included a 14-year-old, according to the Gazan health ministry, which also provided the overall death toll.
Tens of thousands had gathered near the border in protest while smaller numbers of stone-throwing Palestinians approached the fence and sought to break through, with Israeli snipers positioned on the other side.
Crowds built throughout the day in the Palestinian enclave less than 100 kilometres (60 miles) away from Jerusalem and sealed off from Israel by a blockade.
The Palestinian Authority government based in the occupied West Bank accused Israel of committing a “terrible massacre.”
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. In a tweet on Monday, Trump hailed the embassy opening as “a great day for Israel”.
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.
Saeb Erekat, Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary-general, called it a “hostile act against international law”.
Police and the Israeli military deployed massively. Around 1,000 police officers were being positioned around the embassy for the inauguration.
Israel’s army said it was almost doubling the number of troops surrounding Gaza and in the occupied West Bank.
It also dropped leaflets warning Gazans to stay away from the fence, including one with a photo of the Champs-Elysees boulevard in Paris and the caption: “Gaza 2025? The choice is in your hands.”
‘Nakba’
May 14 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel.
The following day, Palestinians mark the “Nakba”, or catastrophe, commemorating the more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.
Palestinian protests are planned on both days. There had already been weeks of protests and clashes along the Gaza border, with 91 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire there since March 30. No Israelis have been wounded and the military has faced criticism over the use of live fire.
Israel says it only opens fire when necessary to stop infiltrations, attacks and damage to the border fence, while accusing Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the blockaded Gaza Strip, of seeking to use the protests as cover to carry out violence.
