More Bloodshed In Gaza As World Marks Quds Day

Gaza: Israeli troops fired live rounds and tear gas as thousands of Palestinians marched towards border fence on Friday, with some demonstrators burning tires, throwing stones and flying blazing kites. At least 500 Palestinians were wounded, including 80 by live fire, Gaza health officials said.

Seven of the wounded were in serious condition, the Health Ministry said, in the latest in a series of mass protests to call attention to a decade-old blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt.

The march also marked the annual "Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day," instituted by late leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to protest Israeli rule of the holy city. Israel and Iran have been archenemies since Tehran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In the cities across the world, thousands of Muslims marked Quds Day with protests, with some chanting "Death to Israel" or burning Israeli flags and effigies of President Donald Trump.

After mid-day Friday prayers, thousands of Gaza residents streamed toward five protest tent camps, each several hundred yards from the fence. From there, smaller groups walked closer to it.

In a camp east of Gaza City, activists burned tires, releasing black smoke. Others threw stones or flew kites with burning rags attached, aiming to send them over the border and set Israeli fields on fire.'

Israeli troops fired volleys of tear gas, including from drones, that sent protesters running for cover.

One man with a bullhorn shouted, "America is the biggest evil."

At one point, seven activists in black-and-white striped shirts meant to resemble concentration camp uniforms from World War II approached the fence.

"We want to remind the world that the Israeli occupation is committing the same massacres that the Nazis committed," said activist Ahmed Abu Artima.

The attempt to draw a parallel between Gaza's suffering and the Holocaust was bound to draw angry reactions.

The mass protests have been aimed at a border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt in 2007, after the Hamas overran the territory. The marchers have also pressed demands for a "right of return" for descendants of Palestinian refugees to ancestral homes in what is now Israel.

More than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled in the 1948 Mideast war over Israel's creation. Two-thirds of Gaza's 2 million residents are descendants of refugees.

Protester Fadi Saleh said the frequent marches have helped revive sympathies in the world for the Palestinians, but that more could be done.

"We need real support and solidarity with our cause," said Saleh, a student of Arabic literature who wore a medical mask against the tear gas.

Israel's use of potentially lethal force against the protesters has drawn international criticism. Rights groups have said Israel's open-fire rules are unlawful.

In Gaza, at least 115 Palestinians had been killed and nearly 3,800 wounded by Israeli army fire in previous protests near the border fence. The overwhelming majority of the dead and wounded had been unarmed.

The protests have largely been organized by Iran allied Hamas and Islamic Jihad.Growing despair in Gaza over blockade-linked hardships, including daily power cuts and rising poverty, have driven turnout.

Israel and Egypt argue that they must maintain the blockade to contain Hamas and other militant groups, which have built up arsenals over the years, including short-range rockets. Israel and Hamas have fought three cross-border wars since 2008.

Lately several other Arab states notably Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain have come closer to Israel building an undeclared alliance against Iran.

Across Iran, tens of thousands joined the Quds Day marches, chanting "Death to Israel" and burning a Trump effigy.

In Tehran, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani addressed worshipers at Friday prayers, during which he said the Israeli regime had realized its "shaky security" ground which has emerged as a result of "the resistance and awakening of the Palestinian people".

"Israel is failing ... the claim of creating a new regional order is a mistake they are making and it is an illusion ... It is our responsibility to defend Palestinians," Larijani added. 

In a communique issued at the end of the rallies in the Iranian capital, the demonstrators renewed their call for the liberation of Palestine from the Israeli occupation as a cause of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Rallies were taken out in London, Toronto and several other Western capitals to mark the day.

A massive rally was witnessed in Sanaa, the war ravaged capital of Yemen.

In Iraq, thousands of Iran-backed militiamen in uniform marched through the streets of the capital of Baghdad, burning an Israeli flag and carrying posters of Ayatollah Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Jerusalem Day protests are being held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The day is known in Arabic as "Al Quds Day," a reference to the city's historic Arabic name.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it to its capital, a move not recognized by most of the international community. Israel's current government has said it will not accept a partition of the city as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.

The eastern sector houses major shrines revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews. The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in east Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, is built on the spot where tradition says the Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) ascended to heaven.