Israeli forces injure 80 Gazans

Ashraf al-Qedra, a spokesman for Gaza’s Health Ministry, said that at least 83 Palestinians had sustained various injuries during the rallies east of Gaza and along a fence separating the enclave from occupied lands on Friday.

The rallies have been held every week since March 30 last year. The Palestinians demand the right to return for those driven out of their homeland by Israeli aggression. Israeli troops have killed over 260 Palestinians since the beginning of the rallies — called the “Great March of Return” — and wounded 26,000 others, according to the Gazan Health Ministry.

A United Nations (UN) fact-finding mission found earlier that Israeli forces committed rights violations during their crackdown against the Palestinian protesters in Gaza that may amount to war crimes.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the “Great March of Return” protests last Friday, Israel deployed tanks near the fence separating the occupied territories from Gaza.

Gaza has been under Israeli siege since June 2007, which has caused a decline in living standards. Israel has launched three major wars against the enclave since 2008, killing thousands of Gazans each time and shattering the impoverished territory’s already poor infrastructure.