GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The leader of Gaza’s ruling Hamas group and Israel’s prime minister staked out tough positions Monday, making de-escalation on the Israel-Gaza border in the near future unlikely.
Since late March, 26 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded by Israeli fire in mass border protests led by Hamas, but also driven by widespread desperation over the territory’s decade-old border blockade by Israel and Egypt.
The protests are seen, in part, as an attempt by Hamas to break the blockade.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh renewed a pledge Monday that the marches would pave the way for a return of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel.
“We will return to Palestine, our villages and Jerusalem,” Haniyeh said in a fiery speech at one of five protest camps set up along the border.
He stopped short of threatening a mass breach of the border, though another Hamas leader has done so in recent speeches.
Israel has accused Hamas of using the protests as a cover for carrying out attacks and bringing infiltrators into Israel. It has said some of those at the border tried to damage the fence, planted explosives or hurled firebombs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Sderot, an Israeli community near Gaza, and said Israel’s top priority is its security.
“We have one clear and simple rule and we seek to express it constantly: If someone tries to attack you — rise up and attack him,” Netanyahu said. “We will not allow, here on the Gaza border, them to hurt us. We will hurt them.”
Israel has said it has the right to defend its sovereign border, amid mounting international expressions of concern about the escalation of the past 10 days.
