GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) – Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are planning a six-week-long tent city protest starting on March 30 to demand Palestinian refugees be allowed by the Zionist regime to return to Palestine, organizers said on Wednesday.
Such a demonstration, envisaging families camped out in the sensitive border area, could present a dilemma for the regime’s military that enforces a "no go” zone for Palestinians on land adjacent to the occupied territories’ frontier fence.
Zionist troops are confronted by frequent Palestinian protests along the Gaza border and have used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition against demonstrators whom the military said hurled rocks or petrol bombs at them.
Ahmed Abu Ayesh, a spokesman for a coordinating committee, said plans were for hundreds or thousands of people, including entire families, to live in tents erected "at the nearest, safe point from the border”. The United Nations, Abu Ayesh said, would be notified of the rally.
A statement issued by the committee urged Palestinians in Gaza to take part in this "national project that endorses peaceful resistance as a new way to win our rights, foremost the right of return” of refugees.
The protest is set to begin on March 30, the annual "Land Day” commemorating the six Arab citizens of Israel who were killed by Zionist troops during demonstrations in 1976 over regime’s land confiscations in northern parts of the occupied territories.