Photos: 25 Fridays of Protest in Gaza

Alan Taylor
September 20, 2018
40 Photos
In Focus

For nearly six months now, Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip have been staging weekly demonstrations at points along the border between Gaza and Israel—protests they call the “Great March of Return,” which demands that Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to their lands in present-day Israel. Every Friday since March 30, large and small groups of protesters approach the border fence under the watch of Israeli soldiers on the other side. Every Friday, Palestinians set tires ablaze, fly Palestinian flags, and chant slogans. Sometimes they throw rocks, fly incendiary kites to set fields ablaze, or lob tear-gas canisters over the fence—and sometimes they attack the fence itself with bolt cutters and hatchets. Every Friday, Israeli soldiers respond with tear gas and rubber bullets—sometimes live ammunition—to disperse, warn, injure, or kill those who get too close to the fence. United Press International quotes the Gaza Health Ministry as saying that “more than 178 Palestinians have been killed since the protests began March 30.”

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A Palestinian protester hurls stones toward Israeli forces during clashes along the border with the Gaza Strip, east of Gaza City, on May 4, 2018. #

Mahmud Hams / AFP / Getty

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A picture taken on March 30, 2018, from the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz, looking across the border into the Gaza Strip, shows Palestinians participating in a protest commemorating Land Day, with Israeli soldiers seen below in the foreground. #

Jack Guez / AFP / Getty

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A drone photo shows smoke rising as Palestinian protesters burn tires near the Gaza–Israel border in Khan Yunis on April 6, 2018. #

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Israeli security forces stand near the kibbutz Nir Oz, on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, as smoke billows from tires burning in the Palestinian village of Khuzaa on April 6, 2018. #

Menahem Kahana / AFP / Getty

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A wounded Palestinian demonstrator is moved away from the protest site near Ez-Zeitoun, south of Gaza City, on March 30, 2018. #

Ali Jadallah / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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A picture taken on April 20, 2018, from the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz shows Israeli soldiers placing concrete blocks while constructing a barrier along the border fence. #

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A Palestinian demonstrator looks on during clashes with Israeli forces along the border east of Gaza City on May 11, 2018. #

Mahmud Hams / AFP / Getty

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A Palestinian drives a horse-drawn cart during clashes with Israeli security forces near the eastern border of the Gaza Strip, east of Jabalia, on April 27, 2018. #

Mohammed Abed / AFP / Getty

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Media photographers watch as Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli forces on May 11, 2018, near Gaza City. #

Etienne De Malglaive / Getty

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A Palestinian demonstrator with a racket hits a tear-gas canister back toward Israeli security forces in Khan Yunis on May 11, 2018. #

Mustafa Hassona / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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Palestinians gather around the body of the 15-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim Ayoub after he was shot and killed by Israeli security forces during clashes along the Israel–Gaza border on April 20, 2018. #

Abed Abu Riash / AFP / Getty

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Relatives of the Palestinian Jabir Abu Mustafa, 40, who was killed at the Israel–Gaza border during protests, mourn during his funeral in Khan Yunis on May 12, 2018. #

Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters

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An unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to Israeli forces drops tear-gas canisters on Palestinian protesters during a protest organized to mark the 70th anniversary of Nakba, also known as the Day of the Catastrophe in 1948, and part of the ongoing "Great March of Return" protests at the border near Gaza's Shujaiyya neighborhood on May 15, 2018. #

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Palestinians prepare an incendiary device attached to a kite before trying to fly it over the border fence with Israel on the eastern outskirts of Jabalia on May 4, 2018. #

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A burning field is seen near the Israeli kibbutz of Mefallesim, along the border with the Gaza Strip, on May 15, 2018, after it was ignited by incendiaries tied to kites flown by Palestinian protesters from across the border. #

Ahmad Gharabli / AFP / Getty

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Palestinian protesters try to cut the border fence east of Gaza City, under the watch of Israeli forces, during a demonstration on May 25, 2018. #

Mohammed Abed / AFP / Getty

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Demonstrators wear masks and a plastic bag while chanting slogans during a protest at the border east of Gaza City on May 18, 2018. #

Mohammed Salem / Reuters

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Tear-gas canisters fired by Israeli troops fall around a Palestinian youth during a protest at the border with Israel on May 25, 2018. #

Khalil Hamra / AP

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Palestinians attend the funeral ceremony of Razan Ashraf Najjar, 21, a female paramedic who was shot dead by Israeli forces while helping wounded demonstrators during protests in Khan Yunis the day before, in the Huzaa neighborhood of Khan Yunis on June 2, 2018. #

Mustafa Hassona / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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An Israeli Merkava Mark IV tank sits along the Israel–Gaza border near the kibbutz Nahal Oz on June 8, 2018. #

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Haitham Abu Sabla, a Palestinian protester, holds his bleeding head as gas pours from a tear-gas canister that lodged in his face after being fired during a demonstration east of Khan Yunis on June 8, 2018. Photos of Sabla's shocking injury spread worldwide online soon afterward. Sabla survived, but suffered serious damage to his upper jaw, teeth, and facial muscles, as well as extended intense exposure to the tear gas. #

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A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot aimed toward Israeli security forces in Khan Yunis on June 8, 2018. #

Mustafa Hassona / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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A paramedic carries an injured Palestinian protester as smoke billows from burning tires east of Gaza City on June 8, 2018. #

Mahmud Hams / AFP / Getty

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The brothers of Sabri Ahmed Abu Khader mourn during his funeral in Gaza City on June 18, 2018. Sabri was killed by Israeli fire near the Gaza Strip's border, said the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. #

Mahmud Hams / AFP / Getty

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Palestinian protesters gather as tear-gas canisters are launched by Israeli forces during a demonstration east of Gaza City on July 27, 2018. #

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Palestinian paramedics help an injured protester as Israeli forces fire tear gas near Gaza City on June 29, 2018. #

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Medics carry an injured man from a demonstration near the border at the Al-Bureyc refugee camp in Gaza City on July 27, 2018. #

Hassan Jedi / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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Palestinians run from gas bombs fired by Israeli forces to disperse them near the Al-Bureyc refugee camp on August 10, 2018. #

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A picture taken on August 17, 2018, shows tear-gas canisters, thrown by Israeli forces, falling onto Palestinian protesters east of Gaza City. #

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A Palestinian protester uses a sling in front of Israeli forces as smoke rises from burning tires east of Gaza City on August 31, 2018. #

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Protesters cut razor wire near the Al Bureij refugee camp on the Gaza–Israel border on September 7, 2018. #

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A protester wearing a Palestinian kaffiyeh carries a Palestinian flag during a demonstration in Gaza City's Shujaiyya neighborhood on September 7, 2018. #

Ali Jadallah / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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Palestinian demonstrators fly a kite carrying incendiary materials to set fire to Israeli territory during clashes east of Gaza City on September 7, 2018. #

Said Khatib / AFP / Getty

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An Israeli army drone falls to the ground after it was snagged by a net thrown at it by Palestinian protesters along the Israel–Gaza border on September 7, 2018. #

Said Khatib / AFP / Getty

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The Palestinian student Mohammed Abu Hussain from Gaza, who lost his leg after being shot by an Israeli sniper during "Great March of Return" demonstrations, sits in a chair with his crutches in the playground of his school in Gaza City on September 3, 2018. #

Ali Jadallah / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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A man waving a Palestinian flag rides a horse on the 25th Friday of the "Great March of Return" demonstrations near the Israel–Gaza border, in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood, on September 14, 2018. #

Ali Jadallah / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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A Palestinian man uses a sling as protesters burn tires east of Shuja'iyya on September 14, 2018. #

Ali Jadallah / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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Palestinians burn tires and pull on parts of the border fence east of Gaza City on September 14, 2018. #

Ali Jadallah / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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Protesters carry a Palestinian man shot and wounded by Israeli troops in Gaza City's Shuja'iyya neighborhood on September 14, 2018. #

Ali Jadallah / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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Palestinians clash with Israeli troops near the Israel–Gaza border east of Gaza City on September 14, 2018. #

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