Iran Press/Middle East: Dozens of Palestinian demonstrators clashed on Friday with Israeli soldiers stationed on Gaza Strip during the weekly anti-Israel protests, better known as the Great March of Return.
Eyewitnesses said that the demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, chanted anti-Israel slogans and threw stones at the soldiers in several areas in eastern Gaza Strip, reported Iran Press.
Field paramedics said that the soldiers fired tear gas, rubber bullets and live gunshots at the demonstrators, adding that many of them were injured and suffered suffocation.
The Highest Commission of the Great March of Return had earlier called on the populations of the Gaza Strip to join the weekly rallies and protests, which started on March 30 last year in eastern Gaza, calling for an end to the crippling 12-year Israeli blockade of the small coastal enclave, as well as the implementation of the right of return for Palestinian refugees, who form an overwhelming majority of Gaza’s population.
The commission said in a statement that the protests are against the United States' decision to consider the Syrian Golan Heights under the Zionist sovereignty.
Gaza Health Ministry said that since the outbreak of the weekly protests, the Zionist army has martyred 273 demonstrators and wounded 26,000 others.
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