Will Israel pay a price for its latest Gaza massacre?
Muslih Sheikh Khalil, 24, is treated at Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital for an injury caused by a bullet that fragmented in his leg. He is among 800 people injured when Israeli forces opened fire with live ammunition at Palestinians taking part in Land Day rallies along the Gaza-Israel boundary, 30 March. Sixteen Palestinians died by Israeli fire.
This article contains graphic images.
Palestinians are calling for escalating global campaigns to isolate Israel after its army killed 16 people in the Gaza Strip and wounded almost 1,500 others.
Meanwhile, Israel has rejected calls for an international investigation and its defense minister has commended soldiers on Friday’s slaughter.
“Evoking memories of the South African apartheid regime’s massacre of peaceful protesters in Sharpeville in 1960, Israel’s military committed a new massacre against Palestinian civilians as they were peacefully commemorating Palestinian Land Day,” the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) said Monday.
The BNC, the steering group for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, urged people around the world to “mainstream the demand for all private and public entities in your country to end all cooperation and/or trade with the Israeli military and ‘security sector.’”
It also calls for heightened campaigns targeting companies and financial institutions complicit in Israel’s crimes.
Devastating injuries
On Monday, the health ministry in Gaza announced that 29-year-old Fares al-Ruqab had succumbed to wounds he suffered after Israeli snipers opened fire into the territory Friday.
Tens of thousands took part in Great March of Return rallies to demand their right of return to lands from which Palestinians were ethnically cleansed, and to protest Israel’s decade-long blockade of Gaza.
That brought to 16 the number of Palestinians killed.
The Israeli army injured almost 1,500 people, more than 800 of them with live ammunition, according to the health ministry.
Dr. Mohammed Ziara, a general practitioner at Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital, posted pictures on Twitter that show devastating injuries sustained by protesters. Ziara told The Electronic Intifada that the images were taken by surgeons at the hospital who treated the injuries.
Pics from shifa hospital in #Gaza for the explosive bullets used by Israeli snipers and the huge damage caused by shooting it directly to the body of unarmed Palestinian at the border during #GreatReturnMarch
These bullets are internationally prohibited for its permanent damage!
The images indicate Israeli forces may have used bullets that fragment in the body causing massive damage to tissue. Bullets that expand or fragment are banned under international law.
Israeli spin
Over the weekend, Israel continued to try to portray victims of its violence as hardcore Hamas militants who had organized a violent invasion across the boundary.
Very few media look behind the lies and talking points disseminated by Israel to justify its massacres. This Israeli journalist did however... twitter.com/asafronel/stat…
But the propaganda narrative collapsed as videos emerged documenting apparent war crimes, particularly the lethal shooting of Abd al-Fattah Abd al-Nabi, 19, as he ran away from the Israel-Gaza boundary fence. Abd al-Nabi was reportedly shot in the head.
The Israeli military on Saturday tweeted a statement claiming full responsibility for the killings, asserting that “everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed.”
But it quickly deleted the statement as emerging evidence gave the lie to its claims.
