Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, November 16, 2018
On Friday afternoon, 16 November 2018, Israeli forces wounded 54 Palestinian civilians, including 11 children, 1 woman and 4 paramedics in the peaceful demonstrations in the eastern Gaza Strip despite the decreasing intensity of the demonstrations there for the third week consecutively and absence of most means usually used during the demonstrations since the beginning of the Return and Breaking the Siege March 7 months ago.
According to observations by PCHR’s fieldworkers, for the third week since the beginning of the Return March on 30 March 2018, the demonstrators abstained from setting fire to tires while the attempts to cross the border fence and throw stones and incendiary balloons were completely absent. Moreover, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails decreased and in Khan Younis the demonstrators did not cross what is known as “Jakar” Street while in other areas crossed only few meters.
Though the demonstrators were around tens of meters away from the border fence, the Israeli forces who stationed in sniper positions and military jeeps along the fence continued to use excessive force against the demonstrators by opening fire and firing teargas canisters at them, without the later posing any imminent threat or danger to the life of soldiers…