Gaza protests: Thousands mark 'Great Return' anniversary

2019-03-31 01:29:29

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have demonstrated in Gaza to mark the anniversary of the start of weekly protests on the boundary with Israel. Demonstrators threw stones and burned tyres, with Israeli troops using tear-gas and live rounds in response. Three protesters died in the clashes, Palestinian officials say, with another killed earlier on Saturday. The protests back the declared right of Palestinian refugees to return to ancestral homes in what is now Israel. At least 189 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed between March and December 2018, the UN says. A UN inquiry says Israeli soldiers may have committed war crimes during the protest marches - a charge Israel rejects. This day of protests is a serious test of the fragile calm between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip, says the BBC's Yolande Knell in Jerusalem. AFP.