Page 3 - TORCH Magazine #10 - June 2018

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GAZA BORDER CONFLICT
In March, April and May, the world’s media focused on the border between Gaza and Israel. If your only source on this situation
was from the viewpoint of the BBC or Sky News, you may have the opinion that Israel was indiscriminately murdering innocent Palestinians. This is not true and it is time to set the record straight about the Gaza border con ict.
The recent violence started in March when Palestinian activists living in Gaza devised
a plan to create a “March of Return” on the border with Israel. The idea was for protesters to gather near the border, erect tents and hold “peaceful protests” until 15th May when they would all march to the border fence and attempt to enter Israel.
Before the march began, however, Hamas got involved. They hijacked what was planned to be peaceful and transformed into terrorism. Hamas, the terror group that controls the Gaza strip, invested $10 million (£7.5 million) into this event, heavily promoting it on billboards
and on television throughout the Gaza Strip. From the rst day, Hamas forced bus drivers to divert away from their regular routes and instead tra c people to the border. The emphasis was placed on families joining in the march, and even patients from hospitals were shipped to the front lines.
The peaceful protest still took place. This was a tented area with food stands, bouncy castles, performing artists and other fun activities for families, known as the “family zone”. This
was where the majority of protesters stayed. However, just a few dozen metres away violent demonstrations took place. Each Friday between 10,000 and 40,000 people joined the “Great Return March” and the area between the family zone and the border with Israel essentially became a war zone.
Thousands of tyres were burned, rocks were catapulted and Molotov cocktails were thrown towards Israeli troops on the other side of the border. Most of those taking part in rioting were Palestinian civilians, however, Hamas
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