Several demonstrations were launched on Sunday afternoon on border areas east of the Gaza Strip against the tightening siege imposed on Gaza.
Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) targeted the demonstrators and ambulance crews in the northern Gaza Strip with tear gas canisters. A number of participants choked on teargas and were treated in the field.
The PIC reporter in the central Gaza Strip said that dozens of Palestinian youths demonstrated to the east of al-Bureij refugee camp while the IOF snipers were deployed behind the border fence.
He reported that the Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters and live bullets at the demonstrators adding that movement of Israeli army jeeps was noticed in the area.
Similar demonstrations were launched in Khuza’a town in the southern Gaza Strip that were met with IOF shooting of teargas and bullets but no injuries were reported according to the PIC reporter there.
In response to calls by youth groups the anti-siege demonstrations started earlier in May 2017 in protest at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza in light of the tightened Israeli siege on the coastal enclave and the punitive measures taken by the Palestinian Authority in cooperation with Israel against the Gaza Strip which include cutting salaries reducing power and medical supplies suspending medical referrals and blocking news websites.
