A Palestinian Arab organization, calling itself the Legal Committee of the Supreme National Committee of the Return Processions and of Breaking the Siege, is blaming the "Israeli occupation" for the intentional killing of participants in what it claims are "peaceful processions" along the Gaza-Israel border, in violation of “human rights law and international humanitarian law.”
Salah Abu Al-'Ati, head of the legal committee, said at a press conference in Gaza that the legal and moral obligation on this issue rests with the international community.
He called for the implementation of a national strategy based on the restoration of national unity, the internationalization of the conflict and the transfer of the "crimes of the occupation" to the International Criminal Court to prevent Israel's leaders from evading punishment.
Abu Al-'Ati praised the beginning of the work of the International Commission investigating recent incidents at the Gaza border on behalf of the UN Human Rights Council and called on Egypt to ease its passage to the Gaza Strip.
According to Palestinian Authority figures, since the start of the “Marches of the Return” last March, 246 Palestinian Arabs have been killed, 44 of them minors.
The statement follows a violent protest along the Gaza border on Friday, in which 13,000 Gazan rioters threw grenades and explosives.
The IDF said there were three incidents of Gazans breaking through the border fence into Israel. The soldiers stopped them before they could reach the homes of Israeli families who live minutes away.
The Hamas-run “health ministry” in Gaza claimed Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian Arab woman during the violent border riots.
The so-called “March of the Return” border riots have been held every week since March 30.
Despite the Arabs’ claims that the protests are not violent, the border riots in the past included Gazans attempting to infiltrate into Israel, as well as using kites and balloons with explosives attached in order to set fire to Israeli property.
In recent weeks, the protests had not been as violent as they had been when they started. However, the violence flared up again on Friday, likely due to the fact that Israel halted the transfer of Qatari money into Gaza, following escalation in the south earlier this week.