Gaza City: Palestinian protests on the Gaza-Israel border have dropped off over the past two days, amid reports that Egyptian officials intervened to restore calm after dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire.
Gaza’s dominant Islamist Hamas movement denied that it was under pressure from neighbouring Egypt to scale back the six-week-old demonstrations, and said they would continue, although fewer Palestinians were now gathering in protest tents, due in part to the start on Thursday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Gaza medics said two Palestinians were shot dead during Tuesday’s demonstrations along the 51 kilometre border. On Monday, 60 were killed in a far greater turnout on the day that the United States relocated its Israel embassy to Jerusalem. About 1360 Palestinians were shot over the course of about eight hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. All the dead were shot on the Palestinian side of the fence, and the border fence, though damaged, was never breached. No Israeli soldiers were reported injured.
Read the article by Nidal al-Mughrabi (Reuters) in The Sydney Morning Herald.