GAZA CITY: Thousands of people marched through the streets on Saturday for the funerals of 16 Palestinians killed by Israel, which vowed to strongly counter protests planned for the next six weeks.
Israeli troops fired warning shots toward Palestinian youths gathered at the Gaza-Israel border on Saturday, wounding 13 people, health officials said.
Tensions remained high as the Palestinian government called a national day of mourning, institutions and universities were closed, and a general strike was called in Gaza and the West Bank.
One of the biggest Palestinian demonstrations in years took place on Friday, with Israeli forces confronting protesters who gathered in their tens of thousands along the 40-mile Gaza-Israeli frontier. The Israeli military estimate was 30,000 people.
Tents have been erected at the fenced border for planned protests scheduled to culminate on May 15, when the state of Israel was created in what Palestinians call the Nakba, or Catastrophe.
The planned protests, called the Great March of Return, is backed by Hamas and other Palestinian factions, including the Fatah faction of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.
The UN Security Council was briefed on the violence in Gaza on Friday at the request of Kuwait. Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general, called for an independent, transparent investigation and appealed “to those concerned to refrain from any act that could lead to further casualties, and in particular any measures that could place civilians in harm's way,” his spokesman said in a statement.
In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, the Sabbagh family prepared to bury 20-year-old Bader, who was shot dead by Israeli troops. His family set up a tent outside their house on the main street in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, to receive relatives and neighbors.
Bader was the youngest boy in his family and worked at a blacksmith's workshop but he had not been paid that week, said Mohammed, his brother, who was standing next to him when he was killed.
“The soldiers were lining up behind the fence. There were many young men standing in front of us, and there were others behind us. Suddenly I heard the sound of gunfire and we started running away and I saw my brother falling down,” Mohammed told Arab News.
“At about 3:30 p.m., he came to ask me for a cigarette. He complained about the bad situation and that he did not have any money. He said: ‘I do not want this life.’ I gave him a cigarette and a few seconds later, the bullet came to kill him.”
Mohammed Al-Awawdeh, 21, said he took part in Friday’s protests and will continue to do so in the coming days “to achieve the demands to lift the siege and restore the land,” he said
“I will come daily with my friends and I will continue daily with my friends here. We will make the occupation hate the day they came to our land. They have to leave here.”
Hamas announced that five of those killed on Friday were from the military wing of the Qassam Brigades.
A statement issued by the Al-Qassam Brigades said: “As usual, the criminal occupier has lost the blood of our people and attacked their peaceful, popular marches with barbarity. He targeted the unarmed civilians with live bullets.”
Brig.-General Ronen Manelis, Israeli military spokesman, said Hamas was using the protests as a guise to launch attacks against Israel and ignite the area. He said violence would likely continue along the border until May 15.
“We won’t let this turn into a ping-pong zone where they perpetrate a terrorist act and we respond with pinpoint action. If this continues we will have no choice but to respond inside the Gaza Strip,” Manelis told reporters.
Thousands gather in Gaza for funerals of shot protesters
Thousands gather in Gaza for funerals of shot protesters
Syrian military tells civilians to evacuate contested area east of Aleppo amid rising tensions
- Syria’s military has announced it will open a “humanitarian corridor” for civilians to evacuate from an area in Aleppo province
- This follows several days of intense clashes between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces
DAMASCUS: Syria’s military said it would open a corridor Thursday for civilians to evacuate an area of Aleppo province that has seen a military buildup following intense clashes between government and Kurdish-led forces in Aleppo city.
The army’s announcement late Wednesday — which said civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday — appeared to signal plans for an offensive in the towns of Deir Hafer and Maskana and surrounding areas, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of Aleppo city.
The military called on the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and other armed groups to withdraw to the other side of the the Euphrates River, to the east of the contested zone.
Syrian government troops have already sent troop reinforcements to the area after accusing the SDF of building up its own forces there, which the SDF denied. There have been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides, and the SDF has said that Turkish drones carried out strikes there.
The government has accused the SDF of launching drone strikes in Aleppo city, including one that hit the Aleppo governorate building on Saturday shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference there.
The tensions in the Deir Hafer area come after several days of intense clashes last week in Aleppo city that ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and government forces taking control of three contested neighborhoods. The fighting killed at least 23 people, wounded dozens more, and displaced tens of thousands.
The fighting broke out as negotiations have stalled between Damascus and the SDF, which controls large swaths of northeast Syria, over an agreement to integrate their forces and for the central government to take control of institutions including border crossings and oil fields in the northeast.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, which was formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkiye-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF for years has been the main US partner in Syria in fighting against the Daesh group, but Turkiye considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkiye. A peace process is now underway.
Despite the long-running US support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and has pushed the Kurds to implement the integration deal. Washington has so far avoided publicly taking sides in the clashes in Aleppo.
The SDF in a statement warned of “dangerous repercussions on civilians, infrastructure, and vital facilities” in case of a further escalation and said Damascus bears “full responsibility for this escalation and all ensuing humanitarian and security repercussions in the region.”
Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, said in a statement Tuesday that the US is “closely monitoring” the situation and called for “all parties to exercise maximum restraint, avoid actions that could further escalate tensions, and prioritize the protection of civilians and critical infrastructure.” He called on the parties to “return to the negotiating table in good faith.”
Al-Sharaa blasts the SDF
In a televised interview aired Wednesday, Al-Sharaa praised the “courage of the Kurds” and said he would guarantee their rights and wants them to be part of the Syrian army, but he lashed out at the SDF.
He accused the group of not abiding by an agreement reached last year under which their forces were supposed to withdraw from neighborhoods they controlled in Aleppo city and of forcibly preventing civilians from leaving when the army opened a corridor for them to evacuate amid the recent clashes.
Al-Sharaa claimed that the SDF refused attempts by France and the US to mediate a ceasefire and withdrawal of Kurdish forces during the clashes due to an order from the PKK.
The interview was initially intended to air Tuesday on Shams TV, a broadcaster based in Irbil — the seat of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region — but was canceled for what the station initially said were technical reasons.
Later the station’s manager said that the interview had been spiked out of fear of further inflaming tensions because of the hard line Al-Sharaa took against the SDF.
Syria’s state TV station instead aired clips from the interview on Wednesday. There was no immediate response from the SDF to Al-Sharaa’s comments.
