The 2018–2019 Gaza border protests, also known as the Great March of Return (), were a series of demonstrations held each Friday in the Gaza Strip near the Gaza–Israel barrier from 30 March 2018 until 27 December 2019,David M. Halbfinger & Iyad Abuheweila, "One Dead Amid Violence in 3rd Week of Protests at Gaza-Israel Fence" The New York Times, 13 April 2018."They are objecting to Israel's 11-year-old blockade of Gaza and seeking to revive international interest in Palestinian claims of a right of return to the lands they were displaced from in 1948." in which Israel killed a total of 223 Palestinians. The demonstrators demanded that the Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return to lands they were displaced from in territory that was Mandatory Palestine and is now Israel. They protested against Israel's land, air and sea blockade of Gaza and the United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.Khaled Abu Toameh, "Hamas vows Gaza protests last until Palestinians return to all of Palestine", The Times of Israel, 9 April 2018."The protests are an uprising for "Jerusalem, Palestine, and the right of return", he said, referring to the demand that Palestinian refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to their former homes in Israel."David M. Halbfinger, Iyad Abuheweila, Jugal K.Patel '300 Meters in Gaza: Snipers, Burning Tires and a Contested Fence,' The New York Times 15 May 2018.’ Most Gazans are Palestinian refugees or their descendants, and marching on the fence highlights their desire to reclaim the lands and homes from which they were displaced 70 years ago in the war surrounding Israel's creation.’Adam Rasgon, "Masses of Gazans head to border area for 'right of return' says organizer" The Jerusalem Post, 28 March 2018."Masses of Palestinians are expected to come to the Gaza border on Friday and move into tents there for a planned six-week-long protest 'to demand the right of return to the homes and villages that they were expelled from in 1948'", Ahmad Abu Ratima, an organizer of the protest, told The Jerusalem Post".
The first demonstrations were organized by independent activists, but the initiative was soon endorsed by Hamas, the governing party of Gaza, as well as other major factions in Gaza. The activists who planned the Great March of Return intended it to last only from 30 March 2018 (Land Day) to 15 May (Nakba Day) but the demonstrations continued for almost 18 months until the organizing committee for the Great March of Return announced on 27 December 2019 that they would be postponed. Thirty thousand Palestinians participated in the first demonstration on 30 March. Larger protests took place on the following Fridays, 6 April, 13 April, 20 April, 27 April, 4 May, and 11 May — each of which involved at least 10,000 demonstrators — while smaller numbers attended activities during the week.
Most of the demonstrators demonstrated peacefully far from the border fence. Peter Cammack, a fellow with the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argued that the march indicated a new trend in Palestinian society and Hamas, with a shift away from violence towards non-violent forms of protest.Daoud Kuttab, "The truth about Gaza" Al-Monitor, 23 May 2018;"This is clearly a new trend in Palestinian society that attempts to expand the notions of resistance and nonviolent protests." Nevertheless, smaller groups attempted to breach the fence, rolling tires, and throwing stones and molotov cocktails. Israeli officials said the demonstrations were used by Hamas as cover for launching attacks against Israel.
At least 189 Palestinians were killed between 30 March and 31 December 2018. Afterwards, an independent United Nations commission said that at least 29 out of the 189 killed were militants. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and live ammunition. According to Robert Mardini, head of Middle East for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), more than 13,000 Palestinians were wounded as of 19 June 2018. The majority were wounded severely, with some 1,400 struck by three to five bullets.Israeli use of live fire in Gaza causing 'unprecedented crisis', Red Cross says,' The Times of Israel, 19 June 2018 No Israelis were physically harmed from 30 March to 12 May, until one Israeli soldier was reported as slightly wounded on 14 May, the day the protests peaked. The same day, 59 or 60 Palestinians were shot dead at twelve clash points along the border fence.'Israel: Apparent War Crimes in Gaza: Accountability Needed for Officials Who Authorized Lethal Force' Human Rights Watch, 13 June 2018: "Human Rights Watch interviewed nine people who witnessed Israeli forces shooting protesters in Gaza on May 14, the day with the highest toll of deaths and injuries so far when more than 60 people were killed, and another who saw a journalist shot and killed on April 6. Seven of these interviewees not only witnessed people being shot, but were also themselves shot. The shootings happened at places where protests were held near the perimeter fences that separate Gaza from Israel, including east of Jabalya, Gaza City, Khan Yunis, and Rafah. Their accounts, along with photographs and videos, show a pattern of Israeli forces shooting people who posed no imminent threat to life with live ammunition." Hamas claimed 50 of them as its militants, and Islamic Jihad claimed 3 of the 62 killed as members of its military wing. Some 35,000 Palestinians protested that day, with thousands approaching the fence.
Israel's use of deadly force was condemned on 13 June 2018 in a United Nations General Assembly resolution. Condemnations also came from human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, and Amnesty International, and by United Nations officials. Kuwait proposed two United Nations Security Council statements, both blocked by the United States, which called for investigations into Israel's killing of Palestinian protesters. The Israeli government praised Israeli troops for protecting the border fence. Media coverage of the demonstrations, and what has been termed the "PR battle", has been the object of analysis and controversy. In late February 2019, a United Nations Human Rights Council's independent commission found that of the 489 cases of Palestinian deaths or injuries analyzed, only two were possibly justified as responses to danger by Israeli security forces. The commission deemed the rest of the cases illegal, and concluded with a recommendation calling on Israel to examine whether war crimes or crimes against humanity had been committed, and if so, to bring those responsible to trial. Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Human Rights Council 25 February 2019: "The commission investigated all 189 fatalities and tracked more than 300 injuries caused by the Israeli security forces at the demonstration sites and during the demonstrations. With the exception of one incident in northern Gaza on 14 May that may have amounted to “direct participation in hostilities” and one incident in Central Gaza on 12 October that may have constituted an “imminent threat to life or serious injury” to the Israeli security forces, the commission found reasonable grounds to believe that, in all other cases, the use of live ammunition by Israeli security forces against demonstrators was unlawful." Over 7,000 live ammunition injuries were to limbs, with 156 resulting in amputations. The WHO estimates that over 1,200 limb injuries would need specialized limb reconstruction treatment.
Background
In 2005, Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza and allowed the Palestinian authority to take control. Despite the withdrawal, Israel still maintains direct external control over everyday life in Gaza, such as the territory's air and maritime space, most of its land crossings, electricity and water supply and other utilities.* According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Palestinians in Gaza still remain protected persons under the articles of the Geneva Conventions.
Following the 2006 Palestinian election and the subsequent Battle of Gaza in 2007, Hamas took full control over Gaza and expelled its rival and then-ruler of the West Bank, Fatah. The takeover by Hamas led Israel and Egypt to impose a land, air and sea blockade on Gaza. Gaza's economy has shriveled as a result, and many people in the territory do not have access to basic necessities. Hamas has also been accused of frequently diverting portions of the international aid Gaza receives to its wars against Israel rather than the civilian population.
As a result of numerous wars between Hamas and Israel, particularly the 2014 Gaza war, the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsened. The new leadership under Yahya Sinwar hoped to get the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority to take control of Gaza's civilian affairs through the 2017 Fatah–Hamas Agreement, which was ultimately unsuccessful. According to Israeli journalist Amos Harel, Hamas, which failed to lift the blockade for years, sought to use the demonstrations as a means to get out its strategic crisis, as it found armed conflict with Israel to be ineffective.
The principal demand of the protests was the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to present-day Israel. A majority of Gaza's population consists of refugees from the 1948 Palestine War and their descendants. Israel rejects any right of return, fearing that Jews would become a minority in Israel if too many Palestinians returned.
Gaza's "no-go zone" and border barrier In late 2005, after the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, the Israeli military imposed a "no-go zone" on the interior side of the Gaza–Israel border in response to rocket fire from Gaza falling on Israeli towns. In 2023, this zone was around 300 meters wide. According to the Israel Defense Force (IDF), this is done "to prevent the concealment of improvised explosives and to disrupt and prevent the use of the area for destructive purposes."
The border fence between Gaza and Israel (the separation barrier) is composed of a crude barbed-wire barrier, a brief gap, and then a high "smart fence" with sensors to detect infiltrators. A crowd surging towards the fence could cross the fence in some 30 seconds, according to one of the contractors who built it.300 Meters in Gaza: Snipers, Burning Tires and a Contested Fence , The New York Times, 13 April 2018.
Idea, organization, and strategy
The idea for a peaceful protest by Gazans demanding their right of return to Israel dates to the early 2010s. Ahmed Abu Ratima (pref. Artema), a Palestinian journalist,Gideon Levy and Alex Levac 'Nothing Makes Sense Here: A Journey Along the Fences and Barbed Wire Suffocating the Gaza Strip' Haaretz, 4 April 2018: Farhat says the idea of a nonviolent march toward the border was thought up as early as 2011 by Ahmed Abu Rteima, a Palestinian journalist and writer, author of the Arabic-language book "Organized Chaos" and now a spokesperson for the "Great March of Return." At the time people thought the idea was crazy, because they were afraid Israel would fire at the marchers. proposed a protest of this sort in a Facebook post. Gazan journalist Muthana al-Najjar initiated the protest in 2018 by pitching a tent near the border for over a month.Enas Fares Ghannam, Israel's threats of violence, Gaza protesters have peaceful dream Despite Israel's threats of violence , Mondoweiss, 29 March 2018. It gained support from Gazan intellectuals like Atef Abu Saif and graduates of Gazan universities, who were said to have drawn inspiration from the examples of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.Donald Macintyre,