GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Marwan Shtewi is poor, unemployed and at the age of 32 has never even left the Gaza Strip.

With few prospects and little to fear, Shtewi is among the crowds of young men who put themselves on the front lines of violent protests along the border with Israel, risking their lives in a weekly showdown meant to draw attention to the dire conditions of Gaza.

While protest organizers voice slogans of defending Jerusalem and returning to the lost homes of their forefathers in Israel, it is the desperation among young men like Shtewi that has been the driving force in the demonstrations. Recovering from a gunshot wound to his arm that sent shrapnel into his abdomen, Shtewi says his protest days are now behind him and he only dreams of finally finding a job.

“I want to see peace and hope and prosperity spread in Gaza when I get out of the hospital,” he said from his hospital bed.

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Jacinda Adern, PM of New Zealand

The Israeli Ambassador will be called in again this week by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to raise concern about the deaths of more than 50 people in Gaza and wounding of 2700 while protesting the move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday Mfat met with Ambassador Itzhak Gerberg in the past fortnight and would call him in again after Israeli forces killed more than 50 people.

The deaths were on the same day the US opened its embassy in Jerusalem after US President Donald Trump’s decision to move it from Te Aviv, recognising it as Israel’s capital.

Ardern said such a move was always going to inflame the situation given Jerusalem was critical for hopes of a “two-state” solution to succeed.

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Leila al-Ghandour’s little face peeked out as her father carried her body from the mosque, wrapped in a white funeral shroud and the green, black and red Palestinian flag.
Her uncles and male cousins passed her small corpse between them as they marched through the streets of the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City towards the graveyard. With each step they chanted their praise of God and their defiance of Israel.
According to her family, the eight-month-old was killed after inhaling a cloud of Israeli tear gas during Monday’s bloody protests on the border. They said her 12-year-old uncle had become confused and accidentally brought the baby to within yards of the barbed wire fence that Israel has vowed to defend with tear gas and snipers’ bullets.

Read more:  https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/103957480/eightmonthold-leila-palestinian-martyr-and-political-poster-child

A senior Hamas leader said on Sunday that recent Palestinian riots on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip were backed by the Islamist group’s weapons and fighters.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahhar called allegations that the terrorist group was employing “peaceful resistance” against Israel “a clear terminological deception.”

“When you have weapons that are being wielded by men who were able to prevent the strongest army in the region from entering the Gaza strip for 51 days, and were able to capture or kill soldiers of that army — is this really ‘peaceful resistance?” asked al-Zahhar, whose remarks were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“When we talk about ‘peaceful resistance,’ we are deceiving the public,” he said. “This is peaceful resistance bolstered by a military force and by security agencies, and enjoying tremendous popular support.”

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