+100 Palestinians Wounded by Israeli Soldiers at Gaza Border as March of Return Rallies Continue

TEHRAN (Defapress)- At least 109 Palestinians, including four children and nine women, were injured by gunfire or suffocated from tear gas after Israeli soldiers attacked demonstrators during the Great March of Return rallies along the Gaza-Israel border on Friday, according to medical sources.

Among the wounded, three were critically injured by gunshots in the head, while tens of unarmed people have also suffocated when the Israeli army troops fired tear gas canisters at demonstrators who continued to protest peacefully along the Eastern border of the Strip.

Palestinian men and women also burnt damaged tires to disrupt the visibility of the Israeli army forces, who used to open gunfire at Palestinians, despite the fact that they do not pose a life threat to the soldiers.

The bloody violence follows the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to back the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in using live ammunition against Palestinians.

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 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. But, National committee of the Great March of Return has confirmed the continuation of peaceful rallies along Gaza's Eastern border until the achievement of its goals.

Since the start of the rallies, some 120 Palestinians have been killed and at least 13,000 injured along the fence in Gaza, with no reports of Israeli casualties, according to reports.

The recent rally in mid-May 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 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", while the UN Human Rights Council has also decided to urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry to investigate all alleged violations and abuses which may amount to war crimes in the occupied Gaza Strip.

The violence was condemned by rights groups and most UN Security Council members, with even the US’ closest allies refusing to stand by Washington’s support for Tel Aviv.

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