Gazans converge on Israel buffer zone for 38th Friday

By Mohamed Majed</p> <p>GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – For the 38th consecutive Friday, Palestinians converged along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone to take part in ongoing demonstrations against Israel’s decades-long occupation. </p> <p>This Friday’s Gaza rally was held under the slogan, “Resistance is a legitimate right”.</p> <p>In a statement, Gaza’s National Authority for Breaking the Siege urged Gazans to take part in today’s demonstration, which coincided with the 31st anniversary of the establishment of resistance movement Hamas.</p> <p>In its own Friday statement, Hamas — which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007 — stressed the Palestinian people’s right to resist occupation and “send a message to the Zionist enemy that there can be no safety for its soldiers or settlers as long as they continued to occupy Palestinian land”.</p> <p>According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 46 demonstrators were injured during Friday’s rally by rubber bullets and teargas fired by Israeli troops deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.</p> <p>Injuries included Anadolu Agency photojournalist Mustafa Hassouneh, who was rushed to Gaza’s Dar al-Shifaa Hospital for treatment. </p> <p>Protesters demand the right to return to their homes and villages in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel. </p> <p>They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities. </p> <p>Since the rallies first began on March 30, more than 210 Palestinians have been martyred — and thousands more injured — by Israeli troops deployed near the buffer zone.