Several hundreds of Israeli protestors gathered near the border with Gaza on Friday, May 23, calling for an end to the deadly war and ethnic cleansing. “Only people can stop the criminal madness of the far-right government. We need to do everything to stop the massacre and the Trump’s imperialist eviction plan to expel Palestinians from their lands,” said Hadash MK Ofer Cassif to journalists.
Hadash MK Ofer Cassif holding a picture of a slain Gaza child during the demonstration against the war near the border, Friday, May 23 (Photo: Zo Haderekh)
Protesters chanted for peace and justice for both Israelis and Palestinians and held banners in Hebrew, Arabic and English, reading “Palestinian Lives Matter,” “No in My Name,” “End the War for All Our Sakes,” and “Refuse.” They held, also, pictures of murdered Gaza children.
Among the speakers at the demonstration was Captain Ron Feiner, a reservist who served in the Israeli occupation army in South Lebanon but has refused to go to Gaza. He expects to start a 20-day prison sentence next Monday. “I don’t think I should be punished but I don’t regret it,” he said. “The orders we have received are not moral. They are not serving the security interest of Israel. The only thing they will bring is more death to Israeli soldiers, Gazan civilians and more hostages.”
On last Sunday evening, around 500 Israeli peace activists marched from the southern city of Sderot toward the Gaza border near Kibbutz Nir Am protesting the genocide in the Strip. Demonstrators wore shirts reading “Stop the atrocities in Gaza” and carried signs with images of infants killed in Israeli airstrikes. Protesters attempted to block the Nir Am junction, and ten were detained by police.
In a call to join the demonstration – under the slogan “Drop everything and come to the Gaza border” – organizers warned that “within hours or days, Smotrich, Ben Gvir and Netanyahu are planning to send tens of thousands of soldiers to occupy Gaza, starve more children, kill more Palestinian civilians, displace more families, and sacrifice the lives of the hostages and the security of us all to settle the Strip.”
Eight Palestinians citizens were killed and others injured on Saturday morning in Israeli airstrikes targeting various areas of the Gaza Strip, concentrated in the central and southern parts of the Strip. At least 71 people were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza on Friday, as Israel pressed ahead with its military offensive and let in minimal aid to the strip. The ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 2023 has so far resulted in at least 53,822 documented Palestinian fatalities, with over 122,382 others injured.
Israel is facing mounting international criticism for its latest offensive and pressure to let aid into Gaza amid a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. The Strip has been under an Israeli blockade for nearly three months, according to the United Nations. Experts have warned that many of Gaza’s 2 million residents are at high risk of famine and activists and health care professionals from 31 countries are organizing a “Global March to Gaza” next month, aiming to put pressure on international bodies to act amid the deepening humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave. Participants from 150 NGOs will gather in Egypt on June 12 and march to the Rafah border crossing in northern Sinai as part of a week-long campaign demanding immediate humanitarian access to Gaza, where aid has been cut off since March 2.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32676
