Palestinian Factions Say to Scale Back Protests on Israel-Gaza Border

In this Friday, Sept. 28, 2018 file photo, A Palestinian protester hurls stones at Israeli troops during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Organizers of the weekly Palestinian demonstrations along the Gaza Strip's frontier with Israel say they will significantly scale down the gatherings in 2020. AP
In this Friday, Sept. 28, 2018 file photo, A Palestinian protester hurls stones at Israeli troops during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Organizers of the weekly Palestinian demonstrations along the Gaza Strip's frontier with Israel say they will significantly scale down the gatherings in 2020. AP
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Palestinian Factions Say to Scale Back Protests on Israel-Gaza Border

In this Friday, Sept. 28, 2018 file photo, A Palestinian protester hurls stones at Israeli troops during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Organizers of the weekly Palestinian demonstrations along the Gaza Strip's frontier with Israel say they will significantly scale down the gatherings in 2020. AP
In this Friday, Sept. 28, 2018 file photo, A Palestinian protester hurls stones at Israeli troops during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Organizers of the weekly Palestinian demonstrations along the Gaza Strip's frontier with Israel say they will significantly scale down the gatherings in 2020. AP

Palestinians in Gaza will scale back protests along the border with Israel, factions in the strip said on Thursday.

For nearly 20 months, Palestinians have held weekly demonstrations dubbed the "Great March of Return", which have often turned violent as people throw rocks and firebombs at Israeli troops who respond by shooting with live fire, Reuters reported.

Gaza medical officials say 214 Palestinians have been killed since the Friday protests began in March 2018.

However, the protests have tapered off in recent months.

The Higher National Committee, a collection of Gaza-based factions and civil society organizations which organize the protests, said there will be a protest this Friday but that demonstrations thereafter would be held monthly and on national occasions.

The protesters have called for an end to a security blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and for Palestinians to have the right to return to land from which their families fled or were forced to flee during Israel’s 1948 founding.

Israel rejects any such return, saying that would eliminate its Jewish majority.

Israel seized Gaza in a 1967 war and pulled out its settlers and troops in 2005.



Israel Fired at Vehicles Belonging to Syria's New Military, Killing 3

An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Israel Fired at Vehicles Belonging to Syria's New Military, Killing 3

An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

The Israeli army said it fired at vehicles in Syria loaded with weapons near a buffer zone established under a 1974 agreement between Syria and Israel.
The strike in the town of Ghadir al-Bustan in Quneitra province killed three people, including two members of Syria's Military Operations Administration, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Military Operations Administration is run Syria’s de facto leadership under Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which did not comment on the attack. The attack coincided with Syrian security operations to search homes for weapons, according to the war monitor.
The Israeli military said they located vehicles carrying weapons and “fired a warning shot adjacent to the vehicles, and the vehicles drove away from the area.” Asked about casualties, the Israeli military said it had no information, reported The Associated Press.
Israeli forces captured the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights following former Syrian President Bashar Assad’s fall last month. The military has been also conducting incursions outside the buffer zone, prompting local protests.