Border battles: 7 things to know for March 30

1. As the week-long holiday of Passover fast approaches, so do thousands of Palestinians approach the Gaza security fence to take part in “March of Return” protests, organized by terror group Hamas, which kicked off Friday.

– Israeli officials repeatedly warned Palestinians not to come near the border during the protests through social media, leaflets dropped from airplanes and statements to news outlets. By early Friday afternoon, with thousands of Gazan demonstrators massed at the border, numerous riots and clashes and several fatalities, it was plain that the warnings had not been heeded.

– The army said it would not allow Palestinians to “violate Israel’s sovereignty” by breaking through the security fence and, early Friday, stationed additional infantry battalions and more than 100 snipers along the border in order to prevent that from happening.

2. The protests coincide with the marking of Land Day, in which Palestinians commemorate the Israeli government’s expropriation of Arab-owned land in the Galilee on March 30, 1976, and ensuing demonstrations in which six Arab Israelis were killed.

– Palestinian groups have been constructing a tent city across from the Gaza security fence and have called on tens of thousands of Gaza residents to participate in what they described as a “peaceful protest.”

– However, Israeli officials have voiced their concerns over the possibility of a fresh flare-up along the enclave’s border.

– IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot confirmed to the Hebrew-language media that Israel has deployed more than a hundred snipers to deal with the Palestinian march should it turn violent and involve attempts to force a way into Israel. “If the Palestinians think they will organize a march and it will pass the [border] fence and they will march into our territory, they’re wrong,” Eisenkot told the Israel Hayom daily. “If there will be a danger to lives, we will authorize live fire,” he declared in a separate interview with Yedioth Ahronoth. “The orders are to use a lot of force.”

3. The main Hebrew-language dailies publish Passover eve interviews with Eisenkot, and while the gist is similar across the different newspapers, some quotes from the IDF leader are notable.

– While contending that the biggest threat to Israel comes from Iran, the IDF chief of staff said there is a high chance for a major military confrontation this year with the Palestinians. Eisenkot told Yedioth that he assessed the chances of a war breaking out this year as “higher than in my first three years in office.”

– The chief of staff also told Yedioth that during his time in office, the military has performed over a thousand covert actions beyond Israel’s borders, calling them “creative operations exceeding all imagination.”

4. In Haaretz, Eisenkot’s stated that there are many different factors that have combined to form a “very complicated reality” on the Gaza front, including “Land Day, Nakba Day, our Independence Day celebrations, the US embassy relocation to Jerusalem, the nearing of the end of [Palestinian Authority President] Mahmoud Abbas’s era, the stalled [intra-Palestinian] reconciliation process and the fact that Hamas is in a grave crisis.”

– Eisenkot described the situation in the Gaza Strip as very difficult, but not yet as a humanitarian crisis. “We are investing great efforts to improve that,” he told Haaretz. “There is a distinct Israeli interest for them not to collapse.”

– Back in Yedioth, Eisenkot stressed that despite the difficulties facing the Jewish state, Israel is anything but existentially threatened. “In its 70th year, the State of Israel enjoys an improved strategic balance with huge advantages over its enemies,” he said, adding that “the 70-year-old Israel is invincible.”

5. The State Attorney’s Office suffered an embarrassing defeat in court as Alon Hassan, the former head of the Ashdod Port Committee who was charged with numerous illegalities during his tenure, was acquitted by Beersheba District Court Judge Yoel Eden.

– Eden heavily criticized the State Attorney’s Office’s conduct throughout the trial, noting that while Hassan’s activities may have seemed suspicious, the state can’t simply decide to file a lawsuit when there is insufficient evidence regarding the alleged crimes.

– The State Attorney’s Office said it was seriously considering appealing the court ruling. “There was much direct evidence, and the state’s witnesses only testified on parts of it,” the State Attorney’s Office said in a statement, according to Israel Hayom.

6. Haaretz reports that JNF Chairman Danny Atar is working on promoting an agreement to help the Greek Patriarchate complete the sale of church-owned lands in Jerusalem to private developers, although such a move may end up harming hundreds of families whose homes are built on such land.

– The Greek Patriarchate and JNF are locked in a legal dispute over a fraud case involving the sale of church lands, which are currently being leased to the state.

– Due to a reported series of misunderstandings, JNF paid a sum of $20 million to false intermediaries who claimed to represent the Patriarchate, in order to extend the lease of most church lands in Jerusalem. However, the Greek Patriarchate was not at all aware of such a deal taking place.

– Now, the Greek Patriarchate is selling the rights to extend the leases, and the rights to most of the church lands in Jerusalem, to private developers. If the developers decide not extend the lease agreements, tenants on lands currently owned by the church will be forced to give up their homes without compensation in about 30 years, Haaretz reports.

7. As Passover marks the Exodus from Egypt, many in Israel are looking back to the country where President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has been re-elected for a second term with about 92 percent of the vote. Since all credible challengers were barred, arrested or dissuaded from running, this is not a surprise.

– Sissi, who as army chief ousted Egypt’s first freely elected president — Islamist Mohamed Morsi — after mass street protests in 2013, won his first term in 2014 with 96.9% of the vote.

– Twenty-five million of the 60 million registered voters, or just 41.5%, turned out during the three days of polling that ended Wednesday, state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported. Twenty-three million voted for Sissi.