Fresh From Gaza Feat, Palestinians Mark Nakba Day

Date: 15 May 2019 - 21:22

News ID: ۶۶۰۲۱

GAZA (Dispatches) – Scores of Palestinians were injured and two fires broke out in southern occupied territories as thousands protested along the Gaza fence for the annual commemoration of Nakba Day, or day of catastrophe.
The occupying regime of Israel's military said around 10,000 demonstrators were along the Gaza fence, while crowds also demonstrated in the occupied West Bank.
Clashes erupted along parts of the fence, with the health ministry in Gaza reporting at least 50 people wounded.
Several incendiary balloons were launched from the blockaded coastal enclave into southern Occupied Palestine, sparking fires in agricultural fields outside the communities of Nahal Oz and Alumim.
Palestinian media reported Zionist troops firing live bullets, tear gas and skunk spray at protesters trying to breach the Israeli fence along Gaza.
The occupying regime deployed additional snipers and hundreds of troops in main friction spots along the Gaza fence in anticipation of protests during Nakba Day marking the creation of Israel in 1948.
Hundreds of thousands were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war which Israel waged with Western help to occupy Palestine.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, protesters held up giant paper keys to symbolize their will to return to the lands and homes.
Every year, Palestinians commemorate the Nakba Day on which more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their land.
There have also been regular protests and clashes along the Gaza fence for more than a year.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, 305 Palestinians, including 59 children and 10 women, have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the Great Return marches in March 2018.
The majority died during the weekly protests, though others were killed in Israeli airstrikes or by tank fire in Gaza. Six Zionists have also been killed over the same time period.
This year, Nakba Day comes a week after a two-day escalation of hostilities which saw close to 700 rockets fired by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, killing four Zionists.
The sheer number of the rockets was enough to overwhelm Israeli missile systems and force Zionist PM Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to yet another truce agreement to prevent a further escalation last week.
The rocket fire came in response to Israeli violence which killed 27 Palestinians.
Zionist officials have concluded that resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip now match their Lebanese counterpart Hezbollah in terms of missile prowess.
According to a new report by the Israeli new site Walla this week, Israeli military experts have confirmed after extensive research that Hamas and Islamic Jihad can launch a barrage of 1,000 missiles a day in case of future conflicts.
But the threat is not limited to missiles and rockets. Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the head of the Israeli military’s Southern Command, admitted that his forces were preparing to face a wide variety of weapons including Kornet-type anti-tank guided missiles, drones and balloon-borne bombs.
Hamas carried out its first ever drone attack against the occupying rgime during the recent confrontation. Israeli media stated that a Hamas drone had fired a missile at a Zionist military convoy but the extent of damage and possible casualties were not clear.
Precision and high destructive power were two other factors that left Israeli officials and military experts aghast after the recent conflict.
Yoni Ben-Menachem, a well-known Israeli journalist, wrote that the occupying regime was amazed how accurate and powerful the latest Palestinian missiles had become.
"What was surprising about the Palestinian missiles in the two-day war was their destructive power," he was quoted as saying by Palestinian media.
The missiles fired by Hamas and Islamic Jihad hit their targets in Israel with high accuracy, Ben-Menachem added.