UPDATE 3 - Gazans converge on Israel border for 2nd week of demos

UPDATES WITH ADDITIONAL DEATHS, INJURIES

By Nour Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - 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.

At least seven Palestinians were martyred on Friday by Israeli army gunfire from the other side of the border, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Casualties reportedly included a child shot near the strip’s eastern border.

More than 1,000 other Palestinians were injured on Friday, including a number in critical condition, the ministry said.

Earlier Friday, another Palestinian shot earlier by Israeli forces near the border -- identified as Thaer Mohamed Rabaa, 30 -- succumbed to his injuries.

Friday’s deaths bring the total number of Gazans martyred by Israeli army gunfire within the past week to 28, according to the ministry.

Over the same period, as many as 2,500 Palestinians have reportedly been injured by rubber bullets and/or live ammunition.

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

Palestinian activists dubbed today's rallies “the Friday of Rubber Tires”, with protesters setting hundreds of car tires alight along the border.

A tried-and-true resistance tactic from the Intifada era, burning rubber tires causes heavy black smoke, thus obscuring the view of Israeli snipers deployed in the area.

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.

“We will remain steadfast in our demands for free and dignified lives,” he said. “We remain determined to continue our ‘Great Return March’ and break the years-long siege of Gaza.”

The border rallies, which began last Friday, kicked off a six-week demonstration that will culminate on May 15. That day will mark the 70th anniversary of Israel's establishment -- an event Palestinians call the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe".

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”.