In Khan Younis, protesters demand a response following Israeli killing of two young protesters

The escalation of violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has triggered a bloody Israeli response in Gaza, killing eleven people so far, and wounding dozens more since Friday according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The scene in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis was very tense Sunday as thousands of angry protesters carried the coffins of two children who were killed Saturday evening at a protest at the city’s border fence. The protesters demanded a swift Palestinian answer to the killing of the young boys.

“We have not waited for so long to see our children killed again by the Israelis, our blood is not cheap, and we will not fold hands towards their barbaric actions,” Akram said to me while running in the funeral.

11-year-old Marwan Barbakh was taking part in a rally east of Khan Younis when two Israeli bullets penetrated his chest. His peers took him by a motorcycle to the European Hospital where he was declared dead.

His father told Mondoweiss that his child insisted three days ago to join the demonstrations on the border. “He implored me to go with his friends to share in the rally, I refused, telling him that the Israeli soldiers would seize any chance to target young children like you, my boy,” Hisham Barbakh told me.

Marwan instead sneaked out with his friends Saturday night to go and throw stones at the Israeli military site overlooking Khan Younis.

“He was very sad to see young children like us killed in cold blood by the Israeli army in the West Bank and Jerusalem, so we agreed in school to demonstrate at the borders like what happened on Friday,” Ahmed said, a friend of Marwan’s who joined him at the protest.

“He was a brave boy, all what he wanted to do is to throw stones, and to carry the Palestinian flag on the borders, what did he do to threaten those heavily armed soldiers?” Ahmed wondered.

Marwan’s mother broke into tears as she said goodbye to her child before he was buried. “He wanted to be an engineer when he gets older to build us a better house, what in the world has my son done to be killed at this young age?,” Nahla asked during the funeral.

17-year-old Omar Othman was also killed at the same protest. He was directly hit in his back and heart. Israeli forces killed the two children even though there is no sign they posed a threat to the military site.

Omar’s father said that his son had also protested on Friday at the Nahal Oz border crossing, and that he was miraculously rescued from the fierce Israeli shelling on the protesters in which eight have been killed. Hundreds of young people had gathered to express their solidarity with what seems is a newly-launched intifada in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

“I saw him when he was leaving home yesterday’s evening, I asked him where are you going? He said: I want to be shot and die a martyr,” said Jamal Othman, Omar’s uncle.

Clashes in Khan Younis. (Photo: Isra Saleh El-Namey)

Clashes in Khan Younis. (Photo: Isra Saleh El-Namy)

Fire is the solution

The deafening sounds of strikes and tank shelling on the borders, and the bloody scenes of death and martyrs have reminded Gazans of their bleak memories of last summer’s conflict. And there is concern of a further escalation looming.

Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor at Al-Azhar University based in Gaza said that the deadly use of fire against the demonstrators in Gaza might indicate Israeli intentions of provoking violence in Gaza to distract attention from the fierce confrontations erupting on a daily basis in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

“Israel would easily seize the chance to shoot at young Palestinians, or respond to errant rockets fired from Gaza as an excuse to open a limited confrontation in Gaza as an outlet from the current crisis,” Dr. Abusada said.

Yet, he insisted that this does not necessarily mean that violence in Gaza will definitely decrease the clashes in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Israel might miscalculate things which will lead to more unrest in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Dr. Abusada attributed the failure in containing the deteriorating security conditions in the West Bank and Jerusalem to the incitement from Netanyahu’s government to settlers to carry rifles to defend themselves against any possible attack.

“Netanyahu’s treatment to the situation has created a state of ‘hysteria’ among both Israeli settlers and Palestinians which increases the clashes and prolongs the crisis,” Abusada concluded.

Source Article from http://mondoweiss.net/2015/10/protesters-response-following

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