Gaza threatens to resume return marches

The Supreme National Authority of the Return Marches and Lifting the Siege in the Gaza Strip has warned that it will resume its activities ahead of schedule in March if Israel continues its attacks.

The move came in remarks made by Talal Abu Zarifa, a member of the Supreme National Council for Marches, three days after the Israeli occupation killed three Palestinians on the Gaza border.

Abu Zarifa said the commission was studying mechanisms to respond to Israel’s ongoing violations against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza.

“One of the options available for a response is to resume the marches, in different and new forms, ahead of the date set by the Commission in the past period,” he said.

Last December, the Authority announced the suspension of marches along Gaza’s border with Israel on a weekly basis until the end of March.

Abu Zarif added that the Commission held a meeting an ongoing basis to follow up on Israeli attacks, the most recent of which was the murder of three innocent boys on the Gaza border.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced that is forces killed three Palestinians, who allegedly threw an “explosive device or grenade bomb” at the army on the Gaza Strip border.

Abu Zarifa said the authority has no direct relationship with individual youth initiatives that have taken place in the past period, in the form of the release of incendiary and explosive balloons towards Israel.

However, the Commission strongly supports this option, particularly in light of Israel’s repudiation of the merits of the recent agreements with the factions.

The return marches began on 30 March 2018, demanding the lifting of the blockade of Gaza and the return of refugees to their towns and villages from which they had been displaced in 1948.

The Israeli army violently suppressed these peaceful marches, killing dozens of Palestinians and injuring thousands.

YPA