Gaza, May 02: More than 2,000 Palestinians held May Day demonstrations on Saturday near the Erez crossing with Israel and the Rafah border with Egypt to protest at the Israeli siege of Gaza.
“We call on the world to stop the siege of Gaza and to come to the defence of Palestinian workers in all Palestinian territories,” said Ramzi Rabah, a protest organiser with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
About 2,000 demonstrators waving red and Palestinian flags gathered near the Erez border crossing with Israel in northern Gaza in response to a call from the DFLP and other leftist factions.
Hundreds of other demonstrators, meanwhile, took part in a sit-in against the blockade — which causes high unemployment in the impoverished territory — at Rafah on the border with Egypt, witnesses said.
Hamas vowed to support for workers in the impoverished coastal strip and urging Egypt to open up its border with the territory.
“Hamas supports all workers, especially those suffering until the end of the siege and the reopening of the crossings,” the statement said.
Hamas urged Arab and Muslim nations to pressure Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing and stop targeting lifeline tunnels that lead into Gaza.
Gaza has an unemployment rate of almost 40 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Human rights groups, both international and Israeli, slammed Israel’s siege of Gaza, branding it “collective punishment.”
Gaza is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls air, sea and land access to the Strip.
The Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza’s sole border crossing that bypasses Israel, rarely opens as Egypt is under immense US and Israeli pressure to keep the crossing shut.
—Agencies