GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Latest on Gaza protests and Jerusalem Day demonstrations around the Middle East (all times local):
8:30 p.m.
French news agency Agence France Press says one of its photographers was wounded at a mass rally in Gaza by what appeared to be Israeli gunfire.
AFP said Mohammed Abed al-Baba was wearing a press vest and helmet about 200 meters (yards) from the border when hurt.
It said he was wounded below the knee while trying to film a wounded protester after Israeli troops opened fire. He is to undergo surgery.
The news agency said he has won several awards and has been working for AFP in Gaza since 2000.
Israel’s military had no immediate comment on the incident.
Israel says it’s defending its sovereign border, including nearby communities, and that troops only target instigators. It accuses Hamas of trying to carry out attacks under the guise of the mass protests.
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7:45 p.m.
The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said his men will not leave Syria even if the whole world tried to force them to do so, adding that only a request from the Syrian government would prompt such a move.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s comment came during a televised speech he gave to hundreds of supporters who gathered in the village of Maroun el-Ras on Lebanon’s border with Israel to mark Jerusalem Day.
The close ally of Iran said Israeli claims that Iran is planning to resume uranium enrichment to wipe out six million Jews in Israel are lies. Iran and its allies don’t want to kill Jews, he added.
“The day of the great battle” in the Middle East is coming, he said, as is the day “when we will all go and pray in Jerusalem.”
Iranians held anti-Israel Jerusalem Day rallies across the country, while in Gaza, Israeli troops killed two men and wounded 525 others participating at a march protesting the decade-long blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt.
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6:45 p.m.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israeli fire has killed two Palestinians at protests along the Gaza border.
It said the two men succumbed to wounds sustained earlier Friday. It said a total of 525 people have been wounded at the protest over the course of the day, 92 of them by live fire.
Witnesses said one of the men was shot close to the fence where he was throwing stones at soldiers.
Israel says it’s defending its sovereign border, including nearby communities, and accuses Hamas of trying to carry out attacks under the guise of the mass protests. Israel’s use of potentially lethal force against the protesters has drawn international criticism.
At least 115 Palestinian protesters, the vast majority unarmed, have been killed and close to 3,800 have been wounded by Israeli army fire since the marches began in late March.
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5:30 p.m.
Several Palestinians donned uniforms similar to those the Nazis forced Jewish prisoners and others to wear in World War Two at a protest along the Gaza border.
Ahmed Abu Artima said “We want to remind the world that the Israeli occupation is committing the same massacres that the Nazis committed.”
Six million Jews were systematically murdered by German Nazis and their collaborators in the Holocaust of WWII, wiping out a third of world Jewry.
Israeli fire has killed 115 Palestinians at border demonstrations led by the Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza.
Denials or attempts to minimize or mock the Holocaust are widespread in the Arab world.
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4:50 p.m.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says 386 Palestinians have been injured in protests near the Gaza fence with Israel, including 70 by Israeli fire.
The ministry says five of the wounded were in serious conditions.
Friday’s march was the latest in a series of protests against the decade-long blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt.
The protest also coincided with the annual “Jerusalem Day,” instituted by Iran to protest against Israeli rule of the holy city. Israel and Iran have been arch enemies since Tehran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The protests have been organized by Hamas, the Islamic militant group ruling Gaza.
The top leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, visited a protest tent camp several hundred meters (yards) from the Gaza perimeter fence. He sat under a large sun cover, addressing demonstrators.
3:35 p.m.
Hundreds of Pakistani Shiite and Sunni Muslims are rallying together in the capital Islamabad and other major cities around the country to mark “Jerusalem Day.” That’s the annual protest against Israel’s rule over Jerusalem and and show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Chanting slogans “Down with America” and “Down with Israel,” demonstrators Friday burned an effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli flags. They urged Muslim countries to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and support the Palestinians’ struggle.
Many Pakistanis on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan take part in anti-Israel rallies every year to mark Al-Quds Day. Al-Quds is Arabic for Jerusalem. Pakistan does not have diplomatic ties with Israel and have observed the day since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.
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2:55 p.m.
Thousands of Palestinians are streaming toward the fence separating Gaza from Israel for a protest against the decade-long blockade of their territory.
In some areas, they burned tires Friday, sending black smoke into the air. Witnesses say that along one stretch of the fence, they heard gunshots. They say Israeli soldiers also fired tear gas volleys. One man with a bullhorn shouted, “America is the biggest evil.”
Friday’s march is part of a series of protests held since late March against the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the territory. Demonstrators have also pressed demands for a “right of return” for Palestinians uprooted in the 1948 war over Israel’s creation.
Friday’s march coincides with “Jerusalem Day,” instituted by post-Islamic Revolution Iran as an annual protest against Israeli control over the holy city.
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2:35 p.m.
Israelis and Palestinians are gearing up for another mass demonstration along the fence with Gaza.
Palestinians burnt tires near the border and Israeli soldiers took positions Friday.
Israeli firefighters were on standby to battle fires caused by kites rigged with burning rags launched by Palestinians that have damaged forests and crops in past protests.
Over 115 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire during near-weekly demonstrations that began March 30.
Protests led by the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza are fueled by frustration over a decade-old Israel-Egyptian blockade, imposed after Hamas seized control there.
Israel is bracing for a large turnout as the protest coincides with “Jerusalem Day” that its archenemy Iran established to coincide with the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to express support for the Palestinians.
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1 p.m.
Scores of Syrians and Palestinians have commemorated the Jerusalem Day marching through the streets of Damascus while chanting anti-Israel slogans.
The men and women marched from the Hamidyeh market in the old city of Damascus to the Umayyad Mosque and waved the Syrian and Palestinian flags.
Hamid Hassan, 73, a Palestinian, said that the Jerusalem Day “means a lot for us. Jerusalem is an Arab land and it’s the land of all religions.”
He added: “We will continue to offer martyrs until we liberate it. We will never kneel.”
Syrian citizen Samah Abdullah, 42, said the issue of Jerusalem is the cause of all Muslims, adding that commemorating the day is a “motivation for us and for all Palestinians to restore the occupied land.”
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12:25 p.m.
Organizers are urging Gaza residents to head to the perimeter fence with Israel for the latest in a series of protests.
The call was issued through mosques and loudspeakers mounted on cars that toured Gaza neighborhoods Friday.
Marchers have protested an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade. On Friday, protests also coincide with “Jerusalem Day,” marked by Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution.
Iran does not recognize Israel or its control over Jerusalem, whose Israeli-annexed eastern sector Palestinians seek as a future capital.
Iran supports several militant groups, including Gaza’s ruling Hamas and smaller Islamic Jihad.
In border protests, activists have burned tires to block the view of Israeli snipers. Organizers say Israeli drones dropped incendiary materials on piles of old tires early Friday to make them unusable for the later protests.
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12:05 p.m.
Thousands of Iran-backed Shiite militiamen have marched through a main Baghdad street to mark “Jerusalem Day.”
The men in military uniforms carried posters of late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei before setting an Israeli flag on fire.
Jerusalem Day began after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, when the Ayatollah Khomeini declared the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan a day to demonstrate the importance of Jerusalem to Muslims.
Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest site in Islam after the Saudi Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
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9:35 a.m.
Iranians have begun anti-Israel “Jerusalem Day” rallies across the country to condemn Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
The rallies, including one at Tehran University, were expected to last through Friday prayer ceremonies.
Chanting “Death to Israel,” demonstrators protested Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem, the city where Muslims believe Islam’s Prophet Muhammad began his journey to heaven. Palestinians want East Jerusalem for their future capital.
Iran does not recognize Israel and supports anti-Israeli militant groups such as Hamas, which rules Gaza, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Demonstrators also chanted anti-American slogans to condemn the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
Iran has marked Al-Quds Day since the start of its 1979 Islamic revolution. Al-Quds is the historic Arabic name for Jerusalem, and Iran says the day is an occasion to express support for the Palestinians.
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8:10 a.m.
The Israeli military is expecting a large turnout for a protest at the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip and is warning residents to stay far away.
Over 115 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire during near-weekly demonstrations that began March 30.
The Hamas-led demonstrations have been fueled by despair over a decade-old Israel-Egyptian blockade, imposed after the Islamic militant group seized control of the territory.
Demonstrators have also called for the “right of return” to lost ancestral homes in what is now Israel. Some two-thirds of Gaza’s 2 million people are descendants of refugees who fled or were forced from their homes during the war surrounding Israel’s establishment in 1948.
Friday’s demonstrations are meant to coincide with “Jerusalem Day,” a day of protest against Israeli control of the city of Jerusalem.
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