National Committee of Return March: Rallies Will Continue

TEHRAN (Defapress)- The committee, following its regular meeting in Gaza on Monday, affirmed that the Great March of Return is a means of peaceful and popular protests to increase the awareness for the Palestinians’ right of return to their lands and to end the Israeli occupation as well as to protect Palestinian holy places.

The committee called on all Muslim and Arab states to implement the resolutions of the successive Muslim and Arab summits and asked the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to boycott all countries that have moved or going to move their embassies to Occupied Jerusalem.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have launched the Great March of Return in the besieged Gaza Strip to demand their right of return to their villages and towns they were forcibly displaced.

The Gaza Health Ministry has reported that the death toll of the Palestinians matyred by Israeli fire in Gaza border clashes has risen to 65, while more than 3,000 people, including children, women and journalists, have been injured by Tel Aviv regime's forces who are positioned along the fence.

The Palestinian Independent Commission for the Prosecution of the Zionist Occupation’s Crimes against Palestinians, Tawtheeq, reported that 54 civilians who have suffered injuries during the March of Return rallies in the Gaza Strip are “clinically dead”.

The recent rally also coincided with the moving of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in line with the Washinton's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December, furthering stoking tensions and angering Palestinians.

The UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has condemned reckless killing of peaceful Palestinian protesters by Israeli forces, writing in a message carried on the UN human rights Twitter account that “shocking killing of dozens, injury of hundreds by Israeli live fire in Gaza must stop now. The right to life must be respected”.

Al-Hussein also called for punishment of those behind killing of Palestinians saying that “those responsible for outrageous human rights violations must be held to account”.

The Amnesty International has also stressed that the attacks on Palestinian protesters by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on Monday are “willful killings constituting war crimes".

The 46-day peaceful protests began on March 30, which coincided with the 42nd anniversary of the Land Day, which marks the day Israeli forces killed six Palestinians during protests against land confiscation in 1976. It continued until May 15, which marks the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, in which over 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes in 1948.

Since the start of the rallies, over 115 Palestinians have been killed and at least 12,000 injured along the fence in Gaza, with no reports of Israeli casualties, according to reports.

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