UPDATE 2 - Gazans march to security fence for 11th Friday in row

UPDATES WITH HEALTH MINISTRY STATEMENT

By Nour Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Palestinians have gathered along the Gaza-Israel border fence -- for the 11th consecutive Friday -- to participate in ongoing rallies against Israel’s decades-long occupation.

Gaza’s National Authority for Breaking the Siege (NABS), which is coordinating the rallies, dubbed Friday’s demonstration the “Friday of Jerusalem”.

In a statement, the NABS reiterated calls to the people of Gaza to take part in the rallies with a view to “breaking the decade-long siege” of the strip.

NABS member Ahmed Abu Rteima, for his part, said: “Peaceful mobilization is our most powerful weapon.”

He also called on Palestinian demonstrators to “redouble their efforts to get through the rallies without losses and refrain from giving the Israelis a pretext to attack”.

“Palestinians everywhere are rising up for Jerusalem,” Abu Rteima asserted.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 386 Palestinian demonstrators were injured on Friday by Israeli army gunfire and teargas near the security fence.

“Demonstrators were injured, five of them seriously, by live ammunition and teargas,” ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement.

The Health Ministry had said earlier that Israeli army troops had targeted ambulances with teargas east of Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis.

“Occupation forces directly targeted our ambulances with teargas bombs,” al-Qidra said, adding that at least one Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance had been struck by a teargas canister.

Earlier, Palestinian medical personnel set up field hospitals near the Gaza-Israel fence to provide immediate medical treatment if needed.

On Friday morning, eyewitnesses said that Israeli forces -- using aerial drones -- had torched several protesters’ tents east of the southern city of Rafah.

Since Mar. 30, 125 Palestinian demonstrators have been martyred in eastern Gaza -- and thousands more injured -- by intense Israeli army gunfire.

Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.