Hundreds rally in Haifa to protest Israeli actions in Gaza

Hundreds of people took part in two demonstrations in Haifa on Friday against Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip, Haaretz reported.

A nighttime protest drew several hundred youths, and several hours earlier around 300 people participated in a rally which included Joint (Arab) List head Ayman Odeh, MK Yousef Jabarin and activist Jafar Farah.

Farah has alleged a policeman broke his knee during a similar rally last month. There were no reports of violence at Friday’s rallies.

Farah was arrested with 20 other people during a Gaza solidarity rally in Haifa in mid-May, which sparked accusations of police violence against protesters. He claimed an officer kicked his leg, shattering his knee, while he was held in a detention facility on Friday night.

The Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department is investigating Farah’s claims.

Violent demonstrations on the Gaza border have become a regular Friday occurrence since March 30 when the Palestinians held their first weekly “March of Return” protest. Israel says the riots are orchestrated by the Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza, and used as cover for attempted terror attacks and breaches of the border fence.

On Friday a young Palestinian woman volunteering as a medic with the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza was shot and killed by the IDF during the day’s riots along the border, the ministry said. Around 100 people were wounded.

The army said it was investigating the report, noting that “thousands of rioters” had gathered at five locations along the border, “burning tires adjacent to the security fence and attempting to damage security infrastructure.”

The violent demonstrations were initially slated to end by May 15, when the Palestinians mark Nakba Day commemorating the displacement that followed Israel’s Independence War in 1948. But Hamas leaders said they want demonstrations to continue. Turnout at the past three weeks’ clashes has been far smaller than in the initial weeks.

In the May 14-15 protests, over 60 Palestinians — almost all of them members of the Hamas or Islamic Jihad terror groups — were killed in clashes with the IDF.

Israel says its forces have opened fire to stop attempts to harm soldiers, damage the fence, and infiltrate Israel with the intent to carry out attacks. Israel accuses Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since 2008, of seeking to use the protests as cover to carry out violence.

Israeli officials said that Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel, was trying to get mobs of Gazans through the fence, including its own gunmen, potentially to carry out attacks inside Israel, and that the IDF’s primary obligation was to ensure that did not happen.

The border tensions follow a week that saw the worst escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas since the 2014 war in Gaza. Earlier this week, Palestinian terror groups fired over 100 rockets and mortars at towns and cities in southern Israel. The Israel Defense Forces responded with dozens of airstrikes on Hamas military targets. After almost 24 hours of fire, a tacit understanding and unofficial ceasefire began, though both sides have described it as fragile.

Agencies contributed to this report.