Middle East Monitor / September 23, 2023
Scores of Palestinians staged a protest in Gaza City on Saturday to demand an end to Israel’s years-long blockade, Anadolu reports.
Protesters waved banners calling for the reopening of Gaza ports during the protest organized by the International Campaign to Break the Gaza Siege group, according to an Anadolu reporter.
“The ports in all world countries represent freedom and access to the outside world,” Salameh Maarouf, head of Hamas-run Government Media Office, said during the protest.
“However, the Palestinians in Gaza are deprived of these rights,” Maarouf added.
The Palestinian official called on the international community “to work to end the Gaza blockade.”
“The Israeli siege on Gaza has destroyed livelihood in the strip, and has taken its toll on the health, economic, industrial and fishing sectors,” he added.
Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has groaned under a crippling Israeli blockade that has deprived its roughly 2.3 million inhabitants of many vital commodities, including food, fuel and medicine.
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Israeli army strikes Gaza after days of increased upheaval
Middle East Eye / September 23, 2023
No casualties were reported in the drone strike following clashes along Israel’s frontier with Gaza that left three Palestinians injured.
Israel carried out a drone strike in Gaza on Saturday following clashes along Israel’s frontier with the besieged strip that left three Palestinians injured, according to official Palestinian and Israeli sources.
No casualties were reported in the drone strike, which was carried out in the early evening. The aerial attack comes against a backdrop of almost daily violence since 13 September on either side of the separation barrier between Israel and Gaza.
An Israeli army spokesperson said the strike targeted a Hamas movement “military post” near clashes along the barrier. Hamas governs the Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian security source told AFP news agency that “an Israeli device had targeted a surveillance site belonging to Hamas east of Gaza City”.
Gazans say the recent demonstrations along the Israel-Gaza barrier are to protest issues including the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and Jewish visits to Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
The chief of the Hamas group, Ismail Haniyeh, who currently resides between Qatar and Turkey, praised actions by demonstrators and extended “a greeting of pride and gratitude to all the revolutionary youth” along the border in a televised statement on Saturday.
According to the Israeli military, protesters have also launched incendiary balloons into Israeli territory, starting fires in areas near the separation fence.
On Friday, the health ministry said 31 Palestinians had been wounded during the confrontations, which came days after a protester was fatally shot by troops.
