Dignity and death on Gaza's border
Palestinians in Gaza risking their lives protesting on the border with Israel say living conditions have become unbearable inside the besieged enclave, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.
MALIKA, Gaza Strip — On May 14, Palestinian young people gathered on the front line along the Gaza border in the Malika area, east of Gaza City, distributing old tires for burning during the next day's commemoration of the Nakba, the catastrophe of the Palestinians' dispossession with the founding of Israel in 1948. Thick smoke already filled the air, obscuring young people as they tried to breach the fence separating Gaza and Israel on the day the United States moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
A group of young Gazans had formed the self-styled tire-burning unit specifically for the Great Return March, commemorating year 70 of the Nakba. Members of the unit had been collecting tires for the past week in preparation, storing them in a pit some 900 feet from the fence so they could retrieve them throughout the day to keep the flames going to protect protesters by blinding Israeli soldiers’ view of the border.
