30,000 demonstrate near Israeli border

Sarah Malm reports for Mailonline,

At least 12 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds hurt during one of the largest Palestinian demonstrations along the Israel-Gaza border in recent years.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians, pressing for a right of return for refugees to what is now Israel, gathered at five locations along the fenced 40-mile frontier where tents were erected for a planned six-week protest, local officials said.

Demonstrators were also seen burning and stamping on posters with the face of U.S. President Donald Trump, who ordered the US embassy in Israel moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The protesters have vowed to remain at the border until the embassy moves to Jerusalem on May 14.

The Israeli military estimated there were 30,000 demonstrators and used a drone to drop tear gas on the massive crowds.

Gaza health officials said one of the 12 dead was aged 16 and at least 400 people were wounded by live gunfire, while others were struck by rubber bullets or treated for tear gas inhalation.

Families brought their children to the encampments just a few hundred yards from the Israeli security barrier with the Hamas Islamist-run enclave and football fields were marked in the sand and scout bands played.

But as the day wore on, hundreds of Palestinian youths ignored calls from the organisers and the Israeli military to stay away from the frontier, where Israeli soldiers across the border kept watch from dirt mound embankments.

The military said its troops had used 'riot dispersal means and firing towards main instigators.' Some of the demonstrators were 'rolling burning tires and hurling stones' at the border fence and at soldiers.

Israeli troops fired live bullets and tear gas at protesters on the other side of the border fence, and hundreds of Palestinians were wounded by army fire, Gaza officials said.