Hamas, Islamic Jihad hold Israel, US responsible for high death toll in Gaza protests

GAZA - Islamic Hamas movement and Islamic Jihad on Monday held Israel and the United States responsible for the high number of casualties caused by Israeli troops' gunfire in eastern Gaza Strip.

At least 41 Palestinians were killed and over 1,700 others injured during mass protests along the Gaza border on Monday.

Top Hamas leader in Gaza Mahmoud Zahar told reporters during his participation in anti-Israel rallies in southern Gaza Strip that "we will carry on with our marches until our goals are achieved despite the crimes of killing and wounding our people."

"The Israeli threats of targeting Hamas leaders and Palestinian militants reflect the terrorism that Israel is practicing against our people and an evidence of its failure to confront the Palestinian people," said al-Zahar.

Rallies, protests and confrontations reached its peak on Monday as part of what the Palestinians call the "Great Marches of Return" which started in March 30 and had so far left 90 killed and 10,000 injured.

Monday's protests were organized by the National Commission of the Great Marches of Return in eastern Gaza Strip, which have been going on since March 30. The anti-Israel rallies were also against moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.

The protests coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence, a day before the Palestinians' Nakba Day, or "Day of Catastrophe."

"(US President Donald) Trump who is moving today his country's embassy to Jerusalem without any concerns or deterrence, is the first and only responsible for the Palestinian people's blood shedding today," said Zahar.

Israeli war jets fighters carried out on Monday afternoon an airstrike on an Islamic Hamas movement's armed wing military facility in northern Gaza Strip, with no injuries reported, according to Hamas armed wing and paramedics.

The Israeli airstrike on the Hamas military facility was an Israeli response to the Palestinian attempts of cutting border fence between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel and infiltrating inside Israel's territories.

Eyewitnesses said that thousands of Palestinian demonstrators cut barbed wire of border fence between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel and managed to enter into Israel. Some of them burned tires.

Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza Khaled al-Batsh, also chairman of the National Commission of the Great Marches of Return in Gaza, told reporters that "the marches will keep going on until the siege imposed on Gaza is broken."