Two Palestinians have been killed as Palestinians in Gaza were planning a six-week-long tent city protest near the Israeli border. The protest was to push demands that Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to Israel.
Hamas called for mass participation of Palestinians in the march of return and to commit to peace. The Islamist Hamas group urged peaceful rallies and the avoidance of confrontation.
The protest is set to begin on Friday, the annual “Land Day” commemorating the six Arab citizens of Israel who were killed by Israeli security forces during demonstrations in 1976 over government land confiscations in northern Israel.
It will end on 15 May, the day Palestinians call the “Nakba” or catastrophe, marking the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.
While one Palestinian was killed on Thursday by the Israelis, on Friday a Gaza farmer Mohammed Najjar was killed and a second man wounded by an Israeli tank shell.
Israeli security forces are on heightened alert and Israel’s military chief said 100 sharpshooters had been deployed on the Gaza border ahead of the planned mass demonstration.
Easter is marked with pilgrimage and ceremonies at the Church of the Holy Sepluchre in Jerusalem’s old city, where according to Christian tradition Jesus Christ was crucified and buried.
