File photo: Palestinian demonstrators gather during a protest at the Israel-Gaza border,
A total of 155 people have been martyred by Israeli forces since Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip began holding regular demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone on Mar. 30, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
In a Thursday statement, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said that 23 children, three women and at least two medics had been among those killed.
Accompanied by the Russian military police, UN peacekeeping forces patrolled Thursday the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the first time since 2014, Russian General Staff spokesman Sergey Rudskoy announced."Control at the Syrian-Jordan border is totally restored. The conditions for the reestablishing the activities of the UN peacekeeping forces, deployed in the disengagement zone between Syria and Israel on the Golan Heights in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 350, are in place," Rudskoy said.Israeli strikes kill seven ‘militants’ inside Syria's GolanHe also added that Russian military had set up eight surveillance posts along the UN patrolling route "to avoid any provocations".He said Syrian regime forces will resume control of those posts in the future.Russia to deploy military police on Golan Heights between Syria, IsraelAl-Qaeda terrorists kidnapped 45 UN peacekeepers in the area to release them after two weeks. The incident prompted UN to withdraw from the zone shortly after. Israel has occupied most of the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Middle East War.
UN peacekeepers back on Golan Heights
Another 17,000 Palestinians were injured over the same period -- more than 400 seriously -- by rubber bullets, heavy ammunition and bullet shrapnel, he added.
According to al-Qidra, injuries included 3,279 children and 1,553 women, some of whom have had limbs amputated as a result of their wounds.
Russia will deploy its military police on the Golan Heights frontier between Syria and Israel, its defence ministry said on Thursday, after weeks of mounting volatility in the area.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s sweeping away of the opposition in southwestern Syria has worried Israel, which believes it could allow his Iranian backers to entrench their troops close to the frontier.Underlining the tensions, Israel killed seven in an overnight air strike on the Syrian-held part of the Golan Heights, Israeli radio said on Thursday.Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian defence ministry official, said that Russian military police had on Thursday begun patrolling in the Golan Heights and planned to set up eight observation posts in the area.'Largest military entity' against Assad regime formedHe said the Russian presence there was in support of United Nations peacekeepers on the Golan Heights who, he said, had suspended their activities in the area in 2012 because their safety was endangered."Today, UN peacekeepers accompanied by Russian military police conducted their first patrols in six years in the separation zone," Rudskoi told a briefing for journalists in Moscow."With the aim of preventing possible provocations against UN posts along the 'Bravo' line, the deployment is planned of eight observation posts of Russia's armed forces' military police," Rudskoi said.He said the Russian presence there was temporary, and that the observation posts would be handed over to Syrian government forces once the situation stabilised.Turkey, US conduct 23rd round of patrols in ManbijThe deployment of the Russian military police highlights the degree to which the Kremlin has become an influential actor in Middle East conflicts since its military intervention in Syria which turned the tide of the war in Assad's favour.Israel has been lobbying the Kremlin to use its influence with Assad, and with Tehran, to try to get the Iranian military presence in Syria scaled back.Israel sees Iran, and Iran's allies in the Hezbollah Shi'ite military, as a direct threat to its national security.That message was conveyed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Russian President Vladimir Putin when they met in Moscow last month, a senior Israeli official said.Iranian forces have withdrawn their heavy weapons in Syria to a distance of 85 km (53 miles) from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, TASS quoted a Russian envoy as saying on Wednesday, but Israel deemed the pullback inadequate.Assad regime tortured 8,000 to death
Russia to deploy military police on Golan Heights between Syria, Israel
The Israeli army faces mounting international criticism for its continued use of disproportionate force against unarmed Palestinian demonstrators.
Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
Israel on Wednesday marked the launch of a new Jewish heritage center in Jerusalem.The center, which will cost over $1 million, will be housed in an old Yemenite synagogue that will soon be renovated. The synagogue is located in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem.A ceremony marking the launch was attended by Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin and Culture Minister Miri Regev. Former Arkansas governor and U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was also present.Israeli PM warns Iran over attempt to close key straitAccording to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, the director of the center, Jawad Siyam, and Committee Head of Batn al-Hawa neighborhood Zuhayr ar-Racabi were arrested by Israeli police prior to the center’s launching ceremony.The Palestinian Abu Nab family had been living in the old synagogue but were forced out in 2015 by Jewish settlers in cooperation with Ateret Cohanim, a group that works to establish a Jewish majority in the Old City and East Jerusalem.
Israel marks launch of Jewish center in Jerusalem
They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of basic commodities.
At least 246 Palestinian protesters were injured on July 27, 2018 by Israeli troops near the Gaza-Israel security fence. A Palestinian demonstrator was martyred on Friday by Israeli army gunfire near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.In a statement, the ministry said that Ghazi Abu Mustafa, 43, had succumbed to injuries after having been shot in the head by Israeli troops east of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
246 Palestinians injured in ongoing rallies in Gaza Strip