By Mohamed Majed
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - For the 44th consecutive week, Palestinians on Friday gathered along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone to take part in ongoing rallies against Israel’s decades-long occupation.
In a statement, Gaza’s National Authority for Breaking the Siege reiterated its call to the people of Gaza to take part in the demonstrations.
The Israeli army, meanwhile, has reportedly sent reinforcements to its side of the buffer zone in anticipation of possible clashes with protesters, Israel’s Broadcasting Authority has reported.
Since Palestinians began holding almost-daily rallies along the buffer zone in March of last year, more than 250 protesters have been killed -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli army gunfire.
Demonstrators demand the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.