World, Middle East

Gaza factions prepare to mark Land Day on March 30

This year's Land Day will coincide with one-year anniversary of ongoing Gaza rallies

Nour Abu Aisha  | 14.03.2019 - Update : 15.03.2019
Gaza factions prepare to mark Land Day on March 30

GAZA CITY, Palestine

Gaza-based resistance factions are calling on the Palestinian people to participate in planned demonstrations to commemorate Land Day on March 30. 

Khaled al-Batsh, a leading member of the Islamic Jihad group, said Thursday: “We’re planning to hold mass rallies on the 42nd Land Day, which will also coincide with the first anniversary of our ongoing protests along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone.” 

“We plan to organize peaceful rallies at five camps set up near the [Gaza-Israel] buffer zone,” he added. “We’re also calling for demonstrations in the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

Land Day commemorates the murder of six Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in 1976. The six had been protesting Israeli land confiscations where they were killed.

Since Palestinians began holding rallies along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone on March 30 of last year, more than 250 demonstrators have been killed by Israeli army gunfire. 

Demonstrators demand the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.  

They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities. 

*Writing by Ali H. M.Abo Rezeg

Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.