Nearly 20,000 Palestinian rioters burned tires and threw rocks at Israeli forces at the border between Gaza and Israel on Friday, with a number of protesters attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory under the cover of mass border demonstrations, taking place for the second consecutive week.
Although IDF officials say the event was an overall success from the army's perspective, the main clash still lies ahead. Another riot is planned for this coming weekend under the banner "Firebomb Friday."
Nine Palestinians were killed during Friday's clashes, including a Palestinian journalist, and dozens were wounded.
A Palestinian flag bearing a swastika symbol was spotted just across the border, and videos and photos of the flag were posted online.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was attending a Mimouna celebration in central Israel Saturday, touched on the Gaza border violence and the allegations of human rights violations against Israel.
"The IDF is protecting us against the imposters," he said. "They wave a Nazi flag in Gaza and in the same breath talk about human rights."
GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir commended the troops for their actions and said, "They carried out their mission in an impressive manner."
Zamir is heading the IDF's border defense against the protests together with the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai and Gaza Division Commander Col. Yehuda Fuchs.
"What we ultimately saw was a violent public disturbance which provided cover for attempts to mobilize terrorist attacks," Zamir added. "Hamas is waging a large campaign of manipulation, and these manipulations are not lost on us."
Nine Palestinians were killed throughout the border riots and 491 were reportedly wounded – 33 of them seriously – a significantly lower casualty count than in the previous demonstration a week prior.
The IDF attributes the change to several factors: First, the number of protesters decreased by about half, from 40,000 the previous week to 20,000 this week - an apparent failure from Hamas' perspective.
Second, the Israeli forces learned important lessons from the initial demonstration pertaining to the use of live fire and snipers, which they implemented the following week.
And third, Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza appear to be sufficiently deterred by the IDF.
"Hamas is deterred and is measuring its steps," IDF Spokesperson Col. Ronen Manelis told reporters. "We promised a quiet [Passover] holiday, and that was the case."
'People of Gaza, wake up'
During the riots, the Palestinian protesters tried setting fire to the border fence, they tried crossing it and they rolled burning tires toward it. Mostly they burned thousands of tires, which covered the contact points along the border in a cloud of black smoke.
To contend with the smoke tactic, IDF units worked in tandem with the fire department, with firefighting crews deployed along the border with water cannons and ventilation systems to push the tire smoke toward Gaza.
IDF officials have characterized the smokescreen tactic as a flop as it failed to hamper the troops, the black smoke didn't hinder the snipers and the toxic smoke didn't reach civilian communities in Israel.
"The IDF fulfilled its mission," Manelis declared. "The border was not breached, Israel's sovereignty was not compromised and there were no Israeli casualties."
"[The Palestinians'] idea was to cover the border fence in a smokescreen. We identified eight attempts to throw explosive devices at the fence, several attempts to throw firebombs and also attempts to cut the fence," he went on to say. "I called the smokescreen a 'gimmick,' and it turned out to be a trivial matter. They were unsuccessful with it, and the only thing it did was to make breathing difficult for the people of Gaza and to harm the environment. The only people who approached the border were paid to do so, or were terrorists."
Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, spoke to the residents of Gaza in a similar vein. "The time has come to wake up and see the truth behind the black smoke that quickly dissipated," he wrote on COGAT's official Facebook page.
"The smoke came and went and did absolutely nothing to help you. Just like the fighting Hamas has forced on Gaza, which still has not led to its rehabilitation, the 'Friday of burning tires' was meant to blind Gazans while Hamas continues to destroy Gaza," he wrote. "Hamas is using you."
The IDF is now bracing for this Friday's "firebomb" prowwww.
"Hamas activists will help collect and prepare thousands of firebombs that protesters will throw at the border fence, with the goal of burning it down," a senior Hamas official told Israel Hayom. Most of the leaders of the terrorist organization who attended the previous demonstration were absent Friday. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, however, threatened the protests would continue on a weekly basis.
Speaking to a cheering crowd in one of the protest camps Friday, Sinwar vowed that a border breach is coming.
The world should "wait for our great move when we penetrate the borders and pray at Al-Aqsa," Sinwar said, referring to the Muslim shrine in Jerusalem.
He was interrupted several times by the crowd, who chanted, "We are going to Jerusalem, millions of martyrs!" and "God bless you Sinwar!"
Senior IDF officers, however, remained nonplussed. "We won't let Gaza turn into Bil'in," one officer said, referring to the West Bank town where Palestinians often demonstrate near the security fence.
'Talks to end the protests'
Arab news outlets reported over the weekend that senior Egyptian officials have proposed a solution to Hamas leaders to end the weekly border riots. According to the reports, the Egyptians offered the following deal: Stop the protests and in exchange, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt will be opened to Palestinians and goods. An Egyptian security delegation is expected to visit Gaza in the coming days to begin discussing the issue with the terrorist organization.
To encourage Hamas to accept the deal, the reports said, Saudi Arabia has echoed the Egyptian request. Moreover, Riyadh has reportedly agreed to vouch for Cairo's promise to open the Rafah crossing more frequently. At present, only humanitarian goods are allowed to cross between Gaza and Egypt.
At the United Nations, Secretary General António Guterres urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint, said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
He said U.N. Mideast envoy Nickolay Mladenov had been in touch with Israeli and Palestinian officials to reinforce "the need to allow people to demonstrate peacefully." Mladenov stressed the need to ensure that "excessive force is not used, and the need to ensure that children are not deliberately put in harm's way," Dujarric said.
For a second week in a row, the United States blocked a U.N. Security Council statement supporting the right of Palestinians to demonstrate peacefully and endorsing Guterres' call for an independent investigation into the deadly protests in Gaza.
Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York Friday evening that 14 of the 15 council nations agreed to the statement, but the U.S., Israel's closest ally, objected.
A White House envoy urged Palestinians to stay away from the fence. Jason Greenblatt said the United States condemns "leaders and protesters who call for violence or who send protesters – including children – to the fence, knowing that they may be injured or killed."
