Palestinians have staged protests along the Gaza Strip’s eastern borders for the second Friday in a row, despite Israel’s warning that it will not change its open-fire policy.
The first protests on March 30 saw tens of thousands of Palestinians demonstrating near the border for their right of return as enshrined in UN resolution 194.
Israeli forces responded with live ammunition and rubber coated bullet against the protesters, resulting in the killings of 16 Palestinians and more than 1,600 wounded, in the bloodiest day since the 2014 Israeli offensive on the besieged coastal enclave.
Mohsen Abu Ramadan, a political analyst, said that targeting Palestinian civilians is “a new-old policy” pursued by Israel, especially under the far-right government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I expect that Israel will continue targeting as many Palestinians as possible in order to discourage them from participating in the event, as part of its intimidation policy,” Abu Ramadan told Al Jazeera.
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that there was no intention for the army to change their “rules of engagement” against Palestinian protesters.
“If there are provocations, there will be a reaction of the harshest kind like last week,” he told Israeli public radio on Thursday.