Palestinians term Friday Gaza clashes “the Friday of Rubber Tires”

Ankara: The Palestinian activists had dubbed Friday’s rallies as the “the Friday of Rubber Tires”, with protesters setting hundreds of car tires alight along the Gaza Strip’s eastern border.

Since Friday morning, thousands of Palestinians have converged on the Gaza Strip’s eastern border with Israel to take part in ongoing anti-occupation demonstrations in conflict of Israel-Palestine, as reported by the Anadolu Agency.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least seven Palestinians have been killed and 3, 500 others injured till now in the ongoing protest.

“Medical teams are treating the wounded in field hospitals set up near the border,” ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement.

Hamas, which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, voiced defiance in the face of the ongoing violence.

“Our people arrayed along the border will resist plans to terminate the Palestinian cause,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told Anadolu Agency.

Demonstrators demand that Palestinian refugees be granted the “right of return” to their towns and villages in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

Israel, for its part, has deployed thousands of troops along the fraught border with Gaza, vowing to use deadly force against anyone who threatens Israel’s “security infrastructure”. (ANI)