A “million-man march” planned Saturday in the Gaza Strip along the border with Israel would constitute a test for Egyptian efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian factions in the enclave.
Palestinian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday that Egyptian officials asked the factions to keep their March of Return peaceful and exercise restraint.
The Israeli army has deployed additional forces around the Strip, ahead of the planned protests that are set to mark the one-year anniversary of the weekly demonstrations along the frontier with Israel.
Khaled al-Batsh, head of the National Authority for the Great March of Return, the body that launched the weekly protests in March 2018, called for a peaceful rally on Saturday.
His request came after an Egyptian security delegation met Friday, for the third time in two days, with Palestinian factions in Gaza to complete talks over a truce in the enclave.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that Israel's response to its demands will effect how the "million-man march" will play out.
Hamas launched the weekly protests a year ago, initially to call for a return of Palestinian refugees to their ancestral lands in what is now Israel.
The focus of the demonstrations has been expanded to pressuring Israel into lifting its crippling blockade of the coastal enclave.
Meanwhile, sources in Tel Aviv said Israeli officials were hinting at carrying out a large-scale military operation in an attempt to limit the number of crowds in Saturday's planned march.
This week’s protests coincide with Land Day, an annual day of commemoration of the events that took place in Israel in 1976, after the Israeli government’s decision to expropriate thousands of hectares in the Galilee.
