Gazans flock to fence for 63rd week of protests

By Mohamed Majed

GAZA, Palestine (AA) - Palestinians on Friday converged near the fence that separates Gaza strip from Israel, to demonstrate against Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories.

Gaza’s National Authority for Return and Breaking the Siege (NARBS), which organizes weekly rallies, called on Palestinians to demonstrate and affirm that "land is not for sale" – an apparent reference to the leaked details of the U.S. compromise peace plan.

"The Palestinian masses, taking to streets just before the U.S.-led conference in Manama, are conveying to the participants that Palestine is not an economic issue, but a movement to liberate the land from the occupation and to ensure return of our people to their home,” the spokesman for Palestine’s Hamas resistance movement -- which runs the Gaza strip -- Abdul Latif al-Qanua said in a statement on Friday.

"Our people have the strength, the will and the steadfastness, that qualifies them to adhere to their land, and to foil all projects aim at liquidating their just cause," he added.

Since the Gaza rallies began in March last year, nearly 270 protesters have been killed -- and thousands more wounded -- by Israeli troops deployed near the buffer zone.

Demonstrators demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has shattered the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of many basic amenities.

On May 18, Washington announced plans to convene a conference in Manama -- capital of Bahrain -- on June 25-26, where U.S. officials are expected to unveil economic features of the Middle East compromise plan between Palestinians and Israelis.

The conference is part of U.S. President Donald Trump's so-called "Deal of the Century" peace plan, the details of which have yet to be revealed in full.

Based on leaks in the media, the plan envisages to make major concessions to Israel regarding the status of Jerusalem city and also regarding right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in historical Palestine.