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Palestinians riot on Gaza border as Hamas calls for third initifada

IDF responds with riot dispersal techniques as Palestinians set fire to tires and attempt to detonate makeshift bombs.

By World Israel News Staff

For the second time in as many days days, hundreds of Palestinians gathered to riot at the border separating the Gaza Strip and Israel, amid calls by Palestinian terror groups for a third intifada.

Rioters ignited tires and set off explosive devices near the security barrier, the IDF said, and added that it responded using riot dispersal techniques, including resorting to live fire in some instances.

According to Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip, Israeli fire wounded five Palestinians during the clashes.

The recent surge in border rioting comes at a time when the IDF has been taking proactive steps to maintain security in the region. On Friday, the IDF executed a drone strike targeting a Hamas observation post in the Gaza Strip following the renewed riots at the border.

Six Palestinian rioters were killed while attempting to detonate a makeshift bomb along the border at a riot on Wednesday.

Starting from the end of March 2018, weekly protests became a norm at the border and persisted almost every Friday until the close of 2019. The rioters, then and now, demand the lifting of Israeli-imposed restrictions on the movement of individuals and goods in and out of the Gaza enclave. They also call for the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to Israel.

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On Saturday, deputy head of Hamas’ so-called politburo Saleh al-Arouri – who was behind several terror attacks against Israelis – and deputy secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Jamil Mazhar, called on the Palestinian leadership to carry out an intifada.

“The Palestinian Authority must return to the intifada to achieve national unity and resolve the Palestinian question on national and democratic grounds,” they said at a summit in Beirut.