Gazans flock to Israel buffer zone for 52nd Friday

GAZA CITY, Palestine

Palestinians flocked to the Gaza-Israel buffer zone on Friday, where they are holding anti-Israel demonstrations for the 52nd consecutive Friday.

Hundreds of demonstrators could be seen carrying Palestinian flags and banners, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent covering the protests.

Gaza’s National Committee for Breaking the Siege (comprised of Gaza-based resistance factions) called on the people of Gaza to take part in Friday’s demonstration.

Nearly 270 Palestinian demonstrators have been killed since Palestinians began holding weekly rallies along the buffer zone in March of last year.

Demonstrators demand the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.

Writing by Ali Abo Rezeg