Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Live Blog: Protests continue as Palestinians begin holding funerals for 61 killed in Gaza

Live Blog: Protests continue as Palestinians begin holding funerals for 61 killed in Gaza

FeaturesIsrael/Palestine 
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Palestinians in Gaza today began holding funerals for protesters killed by Israeli forces at yesterday’s Great March of Return near the buffer zone between Gaza and Israeli, which coincided with the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. Overnight casualties increased to 61, with the youngest killed was identified as 8-month old Laila al-Ghandour who died of tear gas inhalation.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health (as of 18:30 GMT):

Two Palestinians had been killed today during clashes east of the al-Bureij refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. One of the two slain Palestinians was identified as Nasser Ghorab, 51. The ministry added that 417 people were wounded during Tuesday’s protests, with injuries ranging from live ammunition to tear gas.
Here are the total number of killed and injured according to the Gaza Ministry of Health:
  • 63 killed, including 8 minors and 1 paramedic
  • ~3,188 injured – including at least 225 minors, 11 journalists, 17 paramedics
  • At least 1,360 shot by Israeli soldiers using live Israeli ammunition.
Since the beginning of the Great March of Return on March 30th, 111 Palestinians have been killed, almost 3,400 protesters have been shot with live ammunition, and almost 13,000injured.
We will be updating this post with updates throughout the day and have embedded our Twitter feed below that will most likely include the most up-to-date news.

Updated 20:20 GMT
Protests have spread across Israel today with Israelis and Palestinians condemning the Israeli military’s killing of 61 protesters yesterday. Tonight in Jerusalem demonstrators lined the sidewalks outside of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence.
Earlier in the day in Tel Aviv around 500 shut down traffic at a busy intersection, chanting“no more killing civilians – end occupation now.”
In the morning Knesset member and head of the Joint List Ayman Odeh joined a march in the northern town of Umm al-Fahm.

Updated 18:45 GMT
The head of the Palestinian mission in Washington DC, Ambassador Husam Zomlot is being recalled back to Ramallah at the “direct instructions” of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, reports the Palestinian Authority’s Wafa News reports. Zomlot took up his post in Washington in 2017 at the personal request of Abbas.
Palestinian Ambassador and head of the PLO Mission in DC Husam Zomlot, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah.

Updated 18:35 GMT

Yumna Patel: Thousands protest across the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nakba

Palestinian protesters carry a banner saying “The right of return is a red line, we will never give it up” in the southern occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem (Photo: Akram al-Wara)

Updated 18:25 GMT
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made a second statement on Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan this afternoon, now going after Erdogan’s use of force on Kurdish civilians:
“The man who sends thousands of Turkish soldiers to maintain the occupation of northern Cyprus and invades Syria, will not preach to us when we defend ourselves against invasion by Hamas. A man whose hands are drenched in the blood of countless Kurdish civilians in Turkey and Syria is the last one who can preach to us about military ethics.”

Updated 17:30 GMT
Israel’s diplomatic relations are taking a hit following the killing of protesters in Gaza yesterday. After both South Africa and Turkey announced yesterday they are recalling ambassadors from Israel, Turkish-Israeli relations have continued to fray with reports surfacing today that Turkey today asked the Israeli ambassador to leave the country. Anadolu Agency reports, 
The Foreign Ministry summoned Ambassador Eitan Naeh and told him it would be “appropriate” for him to return to his country “for a while”, said the sources, who refused to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
This morning Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the head of an “apartheid state” on social media.  Netanyahu responded, “Erdogan is among Hamas’s biggest supporters and there is no doubt that he well understands terrorism and slaughter. I suggest that he not preach morality to us.”

Meanwhile Erdogan is rallying international support for Palestinians. Today Turkey delivered more than $100,000 in humanitarian aid to the Palestine Red Crescent in Gaza, reports Anadolu Agency. 
Aside from Turkey, Belgium and Ireland today summoned Israeli ambassadors.

Updated 15:10 GMT
This morning the Israeli military tweeted the following:
Even putting aside the question of how the military identifies “terrorists” or “terror backgrounds,” this is a stark admission that the military murdered at least 37 other people in Gaza.
Jonathan Ofir adds on Facebook:
But what is the meaning of this message anyway? Do the snipers check the background of those people they execute beforehand? Obviously, not. The “inquiry” happened after the fact of their killing. This suggests the notion of kill first, and then check if you got a “terrorist”. By Israeli standards, it would appear that a “collateral” of OVER 50% is still something to boast about.

Updated 14:55 GMT
Be sure to watch this news clip of Noura Erakat on CBS News talking about yesterday’s massacre in Gaza.


Updated 14:40 GMT
The Daily News has an astonishing cover today underlining the tone deafness senior Trump administration officials during the opening ceremony of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, juxtaposed with a scene from Gaza where Israeli soldiers killed 60 Palestinian protesters.


We will be updating this post with updates throughout the day and have embedded our Twitter feed below that will most likely include the most up-to-date news.

Tweets 

  1.  Mondoweiss Retweeted
    If you’re an American Jew and you’ve been brought up to feel a kind of vague loyalty to Israel but you deplore the actually existing state of Israel, one good way to resolve that cognitive dissonance is to just decide you love your parents but they’re wrong about this
  2.  Mondoweiss Retweeted
    With strong and solemn words from @AnnemarieJacir
  3. After more than 70 years of the , Gaza refugees have raised their voices through the . A day after the bloodiest day in Gaza since the 2014 war, Ahmad Kabariti asked protesters what they were thinking about on this http://j.mp/2k3h3Bz 
    View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter
  4. A group of Senators - including some potential Presidential candidates - sent a letter to @SecPompeo calling for action to "alleviate the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip."
  5. Mourners around the body of Yazan al-Tubasi during his funeral in City on May 15, 2018. Al-Tubasi was killed by Israeli troops during protests where Palestinians were demanding the right to return to their homeland.
    (Photo: Mahmoud Ajour/APA Images)
    View image on Twitter
  6.  Mondoweiss Retweeted
    .@sharifkouddous on Gaza yesterday: "The sniper bullets don't come in quick succession… You hear a shot, someone falls down. His bloody body is carried away. You wait a few minutes, you have another shot… And that's how 1,350 people were shot yesterday—slowly—by Israel"
    View image on Twitter
  7.  Mondoweiss Retweeted
    I’m the child of Holocaust Survivors. This kind of genocidal violence in Israel must be called out for what it is. This is totally unacceptable. Occupation is a crime. Our heritage should forbid us from engaging in this horrendous violence. We must address the cycle and end it
  8.  Mondoweiss Retweeted
    Two surgeries-- in one operating theater. A bullet removed from a woman's abdomen. A man being helped in the corridor. Scenes from the aftermath of a bloody day in Gaza. https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/%E2%80%9Cunacceptable-and-inhuman%E2%80%9D-violence-israeli-army-against-palestinian-protesters-gaza?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=social 
    View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter
  9. At an emergency meeting of the Security Council this morning, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley casted blame for the deaths of Palestinian protesters in Gaza yesterday on Hamas and Iran. - http://j.mp/2rKpDcW  -
    View image on Twitter
  10. People are using the hashtag to share their history on the 70th anniversary of the "catastrophe."http://j.mp/2InoaDB 
    View image on Twitter
  11.  Mondoweiss Retweeted
    Few thoughts on why Israel's legal system cannot be trusted to conduct credible and INDEPENDENT investigation into the :

    1) Israel’s Attorney General approved the classified open fire directive which forms the basis for IDF’s use of live fire against protesters. 1/
  12.  Mondoweiss Retweeted
    My grandmother fled on a truck with her siblings when she was 5 years old in 1948. They lived on a small piece of land provided by the UNRWA in Yarmouk, Syria, they built them a room. 14 people in one room. (3)
  13. Mourners around over the body of Palestinian Yazan al-Tubasi during his funeral in City on May 15, 2018. Al-Tubasi was killed by Israeli troops during protests where Palestinians were demanding the right to return to their homeland.
    (Photo: Mahmoud Ajour/APA Images)
    View image on Twitter
  14.  Mondoweiss Retweeted
    US green-lighting Israel's "calculated killings of protesters"- @hrw reacts to US blocking UN Security Council from investigating Gaza bloodbath.
    View image on Twitter
  15.  Mondoweiss Retweeted
    So many times in history we have seen governments shoot people while trying to climb fences to escape some hell they are in. Usually the people shooting are not the good guys.

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