Israeli snipers wound scores of Palestinian women in Gaza protest

Israeli gunfire has wounded over 134 Palestinians as thousands of women protested in the Great March of Return along the area of the Gaza Strip besieged by occupying forces. Since the protest began on March 30th, this was the first major women’s demonstration against the Israeli occupation and refusal of Palestinian’s rights to return to their homes, from which they were violently expelled in 1948.

The Palestine Chronicle reports:

At least 134 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli gunfire as thousands of Palestinian women demonstrated along the heavily fortified fence with Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Today it was mostly Palestinian women who took part in the ongoing Great Return March protest in Gaza.

But this is how the Israeli military treated them…. pic.twitter.com/mF5rnuI9Ly

— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) July 3, 2018

Ashraf al-Qudra, the spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry, said in a statement on Tuesday that media representatives covering the event were among those who were injured at the scene, east of the enclave.

The eastern separation fence between the besieged Gaza Strip and the Occupied territories of Palestine witnessed a huge turnout of female protesters on Tuesday as part of the #GreatReturnMarch demonstrations. One of the participants answers why Palestinian women risk their live. pic.twitter.com/Eac7C4VASm

— Great Return March (@GreatReturnMa) July 3, 2018

The protest was the first mass women’s demonstration to take place in the strip since popular protests calling for Palestinians’ right of return began on March 30 in the strip.

A Palestinian female protester defies the Israeli snipers and raises the Palestinian flag on top of the eastern Gaza seprataion fence during today’s Great March of Return. pic.twitter.com/gVzelTV7i0

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 3, 2018

Palestinians in the strip have taken part in the protests, dubbed the Great March of Return, calling for their right of return to the homes from which they were expelled from in 1948 during a violent ethnic cleansing campaign that forcibly expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians from their towns and villages

Join us & support our #WomenUnderSiege � #WomensMarchGaza on Tuesday 3/7/2018, 5-7 O’clock #Gaza time, organized by the national committee for Great Return March & Breaking the Siege. #GreatReturnMarch #GazaMassacre #GazaBleeds #FreePalestine #LiftTheSiege pic.twitter.com/ADJ5am4nxQ

— Women For Palestine (@WomenForPal) June 30, 2018

They have also been demonstrating against the Israeli-Egyptian land, sea and naval blockade that has been in place since 2006 when Hamas – the party governing the strip – came to power.

Women on Tuesday arrived in buses from across the port city, home to more than two million people, many accompanied by their children.

#Yemen stands in solidarity with the women of Gaza.#WomensMarchGaza #WomenUnderSiege #GreatReturnMarch pic.twitter.com/VZ6qty69fz

— Women For Palestine (@WomenForPal) July 4, 2018

“I came to finish the march that my daughter had started,” Rim Abu Irmana said, waving a picture of her 15-year-old daughter, Wasal, who was killed by live Israeli ammunition on May 14 – the same day more than 60 other Palestinians were also killed.

Retweeted alQuds (@palestine_bs):#قروب_فلسطيني
Updates: Thousands of Palestinian Women are gathering east of Gaza City for women March#WomenUnderSiege pic.twitter.com/4HtT6SghGe

— RevHumanRights (@revhumanrights) July 3, 2018

May 14, which commemorated the 70 years since the Nakba, coincided with the controversial US embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Holding the hand of her young son, Irmana said:

“These demonstrations are peaceful. We are only defending our land and our rights.”

#GazaStrip#GreatReturnMarch
Tuesday, 3 July, the High Committee of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege is organizing the first women’s march since the protests began on 30 March.
.@jimmy_dore
.@Ocasio2018
.@swilkinsonbc
.@Omar_Gaza
????Read: https://t.co/PI9HquxGyf pic.twitter.com/JgxRJARoyT

— If Americans Knew (@ifamericansknew) June 29, 2018

Since Palestinians began staging mass rallies near the Gaza-Israeli fence on March 30, scores of protesters have been killed and thousands more injured by Israeli army gunfire.

Israeli Defense Forces are so scared that a group of women and children are going to attack them and overtake their country, that they felt compelled to open fire on them. The actions of the IDF repeatedly demonstrate that the Western world’s feigned concern over human rights is paper thin, and only applies when it is useful to foreign policy interests. If human rights had anything to do with the conscience of the West, they’d be bringing democracy and freedom to Israel and arming Palestinians to help protect themselves from Israeli aggression. But it seems to actually work the other way around, but without American boots. American bombs and bullets, however, are in plentiful supply and they are spreading lots of freedom from this life for many Palestinians, including women and children.