Some highlights:
Palestinian workers unions and political groups called for the protests near the Gaza City neighborhood of al-Zaitoun to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the burning of the al-Aqsa mosque by an Australian Christian tourist, and to protest Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza.
Israeli snipers deployed on the Israel-Gaza boundary fired machine guns, live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters at Palestinian civilians who were peacefully gathered near the eastern fence.
Those forces injured 40+ Palestinians, half of whom are children.
A sniper was wounded as Palestinians were attempting to remove the sniper’s weapon, and one of the Palestinians (so far unidentified) shot though the sniper’s murder hole with a handgun.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett swiftly vowed to “even the score” – revenge rhetoric reminiscent of his predecessors.
The Palestinian right to armed resistance against foreign occupation and colonization is enshrined in international law.
The blackmail and threats to withhold basic humanitarian needs and rights from the civilian population as collective punishment for any resistance violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. The convention, by which Israel is bound, states that no civilian under military occupation “may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed.”
Such outlawed collective penalties are however Israel’s standard operating procedure, which it can continue due to the total impunity afforded to it by the so-called international community.