Palestinians are streaming into tent camps on Gaza's border with Israel for a third mass protest, amid concerns about more bloodshed after 27 Palestinians were killed and hundreds during rallies in the last two weeks.

Rights groups have branded the Israeli military's open-fire regulations as unlawful, saying they permit soldiers to use potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters.

Israel has accused Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers of using the protests as a cover for attacks and says snipers only target the main "instigators".

The marches have been organised by Hamas, but large turnouts on two preceding Fridays were also driven by desperation among the territory's two million residents.

Gaza has endured a border blockade by Israel and Egypt since Hamas overran the territory in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliament elections.

The blockade has driven Gaza deeper into poverty, with unemployment approaching 50% and electricity available for less than five hours a day.

The marchers are protesting against the blockade, but are also asserting what they say is a "right of return" of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel.

About 2,000 people gathered on Friday at a tent camp east of Gaza City, one of five set up several hundred meters from the border fence.

Several dozen young men moved closer to the fence, some of them throwing stones. The Gaza Health Ministry said three Palestinians had been wounded by Israeli fire.</s>GAZA (Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said four of its members were killed in an apparent accidental blast in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

The group said in a statement that it was “mourning its fighters who were martyred during preparations”.

It usually employs those terms to refer to casualties caused by the accidental detonation of weapons or explosives used in attacks against Israel.

The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed four fatalities in the incident. Medics at the scene in the Rafah area said the explosion was caused by Israel. But an Israeli military spokesman said the army was not involved.

“Contrary to reports currently circulating I can tell you that the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is not aware of any IDF fire in the area surrounding Rafah,” the spokesman said.

Violence has flared in the Gaza Strip since March 30, when Palestinians began protests along the border area with Israel.

Israeli troops have shot dead 31 Gaza Palestinians and wounded hundreds since the protests began, drawing international criticism of their lethal tactics.

Protesters have set up tented camps near the frontier as a protest dubbed “The Great March of Return” - evoking a longtime call for refugees to regain ancestral homes in what is now Israel - moved into its third week.

Israel has declared a no-go zone close to the Gaza border fence.

Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005. The Palestinian enclave is ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement, designated by Israel and the West as a terrorist group.

Citing security concerns, Israel maintains a naval blockade of the coastal territory, keeping tight restrictions on the movement of Palestinians and goods across the frontier.

Egypt, battling an Islamist insurgency in neighboring Sinai, keeps its border with Gaza largely closed.</s>The flareup of deadly violence in Gaza is of a new kind, even in the inventive annals of Mideast conflicts: Israeli soldiers shooting at Palestinian demonstrators burning tires and hurling firebombs across what looks like an international border, inflicting casualties while claiming concerns of a mass breach of the barrier.

But viewed another way, it’s just the latest reflection of basic facts on the ground: the situation for the 2 million people of Gaza is extraordinarily harsh and difficult to resolve. It’s not surprising so many would risk death by converging on the border fence, which has now happened three Fridays in a row, with dozens killed and hundreds injured.

By and large the people of Gaza — over two-thirds of them descended from refugees who left communities in what is now Israel — cannot leave their tiny strip of arid land along the Mediterranean coast. Anger toward Israel runs deep, yet dependence is great.

Israel blocks Gazans to the north and east, controlling who and what goes in and out. It blockades their waters to the west and prevents construction of sea and airports, with Egypt completing the blockade to the south.

Israel’s argument is that Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, will use materials that come into the strip for building rockets, making bombs and digging attack tunnels. The fear is well-founded.

Israel also severely restricts Gazans leaving the territory in a policy it defends on security grounds, but which often looks punitive. Every exit, even to cross Israel en route to Jordan and beyond for medical, academic, professional or personal purposes, requires the approval of Israel — or Egypt, where the anti-Islamist government also deeply distrusts Hamas.

Israel and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, expelled by Hamas from Gaza in 2007, largely control power supplies. There are just a few hours of electricity a day.

Hamas remains committed to conflict with Israel, and attempts to pressure the population against Hamas are questionable. Gazans simply don’t have the means to overthrow the well-armed group, even if they wanted.

Meanwhile, half the strip’s workforce is unemployed. Much of the vast destruction from the last war with Israel, in 2014, still has not been rebuilt. Public entertainment is almost nonexistent and alcohol, in the name of Islam, is banned.

Adding insult to injury, the Palestinians do not have a currency. The few bills of cash in Gazan pockets are Israeli shekels emblazoned with the likenesses of Jewish religious and Zionist political figures.

Hamas says the border protests will continue through May 15, the anniversary of Israel’s founding and a day of mourning for the Palestinians to mark their mass displacement during the war surrounding Israel’s creation. It has signalled it may attempt a mass border breach, just as Israel fears. With Israel digging in its heels, and only muted debate in Israel over the high casualty count, bloodshed is likely to continue.

Here’s a look at how the players in this tragic scenario have reached this point:

Hamas rose to global prominence with 1990s suicide bombings aimed at scuttling the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, killing hundreds of Israelis. It built up a formidable arsenal of rockets and other weapons. Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, ending a 38-year military presence, cleared the way for Hamas to violently seize control of Gaza in 2007 from its rival, the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, a year after winning elections..

Israel, which along with its Western allies considers Hamas a terrorist group, blockaded the territory along with Egypt, battering the meagre economy. Jobs are hard to come by, Gaza’s beaches are polluted by untreated sewage and tap water is undrinkable. Hamas, meanwhile, stifles dissent, bans public gatherings and promotes its conservative Islamic values.

Hamas also has fought three wars with Israel, sparked in part by sustained rocket fire on Israel. Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community have called on Hamas to disarm. But the group, founded in the late 1980s as a branch of the regionwide Muslim Brotherhood, has held on to its violent ideology, even as conditions deteriorate.

Israel claims some humanitarian credit for keeping border crossings open, allowing food, consumer goods and some construction materials to flow into the territory and some Gazans to leave. But sweeping export restrictions cripple the economy, and getting a travel permit is extremely difficult. Applicants are often called in for interrogations by Israel’s Shin Bet security agency. Many are rejected on vague security grounds without explanation.

Israel says it does its best to ease the blockade given the security challenges. It accuses Hamas of trying to exploit and recruit civilians — a charge Hamas reciprocates against Israel.

During the three wars over the past decade, Israel inflicted heavy damage on Hamas, but also came under intense international criticism for the high civilian death toll and vast damage to Gaza’s infrastructure. Toppling Hamas seems unlikely and the prospect of another war, with its uncertain results, has little appeal to Israel — as does renewed full occupation.

For years, Egypt played a double game with Gaza, restricting travel through its borders while tolerating a thriving cross-border smuggling industry. This allowed Hamas to sneak in weapons and consumer goods, enriching supporters who operated the tunnels and undermining the Israeli blockade.

Since taking power in 2014, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has taken a tougher line. He cracked down on the smuggling and largely shuttered Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt, traditionally the main exit point for Gazans travelling abroad. Last year, the border was open for just over 30 days.

Egypt has defended its actions on security grounds, noting it’s fighting an Islamic insurgency in Sinai, along Gaza’s border. At times, it has accused Hamas of aiding militants in Egypt.

But el-Sissi’s tough policies and close security relations with Israel have hurt his credibility as a broker between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Repeated reconciliation attempts, sponsored by Egypt, have failed.

For years, President Mahmoud Abbas, based in the West Bank, tried to retain influence in Gaza by paying salaries to tens of thousands of former civil servants and funding fuel shipments from Israel to generate Gaza’s electricity. The unintended result: Abbas provided a safety net that helped keep Hamas in power.

A frustrated Abbas has taken a tougher line over the past year, scaling back electricity subsidies, reducing salaries of his former employees and now threatening to cut them off altogether.

These tough measures have added to the hardship in Gaza but had little effect on Hamas. A renewed attempt at reconciliation has deadlocked over Hamas’ refusal to disarm, collapsing last month after a bombing on the convoy of Abbas’ prime minister during a stop in Gaza.

Much of the international donor community has boycotted Hamas, branded as a terrorist group. But it has also poured hundreds of millions of dollars of humanitarian aid into Gaza, at times at Israel’s request, in effect propping up Hamas. With little to show for their efforts, weary donors have scaled back their contributions in recent years and given a lukewarm response to Israel’s latest appeal to send more aid.

The U.S. has also cut some $300 million in money for UNWRA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Over half of Gaza’s people rely on UNRWA for assistance. The agency is now scrambling to try to make up the funding gap, raising the danger of a new humanitarian crisis.

Federman, the AP’s bureau chief for Israel and the Palestinian territories, has covered the region since 2003. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/joseffederman . Perry, who reported from Cairo, is the AP’s Middle East editor and has covered the region since the 1990s. Follow him on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/perry_dan .

This is an AP analysis on the roots of the conflict in Gaza.</s>ALONG THE ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER (AP) — The flareup of deadly violence in Gaza is of a new kind, even in the inventive annals of Mideast conflicts: Israeli soldiers shooting at Palestinian demonstrators burning tires and hurling firebombs across what looks like an international border, inflicting casualties while claiming concerns of a mass breach of the barrier.

But viewed another way, it's just the latest reflection of basic facts on the ground: the situation for the 2 million people of Gaza is extraordinarily harsh and difficult to resolve. It's not surprising so many would risk death by converging on the border fence, which has now happened three Fridays in a row, with dozens killed and hundreds injured.

By and large the people of Gaza — over two-thirds of them descended from refugees who left communities in what is now Israel — cannot leave their tiny strip of arid land along the Mediterranean coast. Anger toward Israel runs deep, yet dependence is great.

Israel blocks Gazans to the north and east, controlling who and what goes in and out. It blockades their waters to the west and prevents construction of sea and airports, with Egypt completing the blockade to the south.

Israel's argument is that Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, will use materials that come into the strip for building rockets, making bombs and digging attack tunnels. The fear is well-founded.

Israel also severely restricts Gazans leaving the territory in a policy it defends on security grounds, but which often looks punitive. Every exit, even to cross Israel en route to Jordan and beyond for medical, academic, professional or personal purposes, requires the approval of Israel — or Egypt, where the anti-Islamist government also deeply distrusts Hamas.

Israel and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, expelled by Hamas from Gaza in 2007, largely control power supplies. There are just a few hours of electricity a day.

Hamas remains committed to conflict with Israel, and attempts to pressure the population against Hamas are questionable. Gazans simply don't have the means to overthrow the well-armed group, even if they wanted.

Meanwhile, half the strip's workforce is unemployed. Much of the vast destruction from the last war with Israel, in 2014, still has not been rebuilt. Public entertainment is almost nonexistent and alcohol, in the name of Islam, is banned.

Adding insult to injury, the Palestinians do not have a currency. The few bills of cash in Gazan pockets are Israeli shekels emblazoned with the likenesses of Jewish religious and Zionist political figures.

Hamas says the border protests will continue through May 15, the anniversary of Israel's founding and a day of mourning for the Palestinians to mark their mass displacement during the war surrounding Israel's creation. It has signaled it may attempt a mass border breach, just as Israel fears. With Israel digging in its heels, and only muted debate in Israel over the high casualty count, bloodshed is likely to continue.

Here's a look at how the players in this tragic scenario have reached this point:

Hamas rose to global prominence with 1990s suicide bombings aimed at scuttling the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, killing hundreds of Israelis. It built up a formidable arsenal of rockets and other weapons. Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, ending a 38-year military presence, cleared the way for Hamas to violently seize control of Gaza in 2007 from its rival, the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, a year after winning elections..

Israel, which along with its Western allies considers Hamas a terrorist group, blockaded the territory along with Egypt, battering the meager economy. Jobs are hard to come by, Gaza's beaches are polluted by untreated sewage and tap water is undrinkable. Hamas, meanwhile, stifles dissent, bans public gatherings and promotes its conservative Islamic values.

Hamas also has fought three wars with Israel, sparked in part by sustained rocket fire on Israel. Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community have called on Hamas to disarm. But the group, founded in the late 1980s as a branch of the regionwide Muslim Brotherhood, has held on to its violent ideology, even as conditions deteriorate.

Israel claims some humanitarian credit for keeping border crossings open, allowing food, consumer goods and some construction materials to flow into the territory and some Gazans to leave. But sweeping export restrictions cripple the economy, and getting a travel permit is extremely difficult. Applicants are often called in for interrogations by Israel's Shin Bet security agency. Many are rejected on vague security grounds without explanation.

Israel says it does its best to ease the blockade given the security challenges. It accuses Hamas of trying to exploit and recruit civilians — a charge Hamas reciprocates against Israel.

During the three wars over the past decade, Israel inflicted heavy damage on Hamas, but also came under intense international criticism for the high civilian death toll and vast damage to Gaza's infrastructure. Toppling Hamas seems unlikely and the prospect of another war, with its uncertain results, has little appeal to Israel — as does renewed full occupation.

For years, Egypt played a double game with Gaza, restricting travel through its borders while tolerating a thriving cross-border smuggling industry. This allowed Hamas to sneak in weapons and consumer goods, enriching supporters who operated the tunnels and undermining the Israeli blockade.

Since taking power in 2014, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has taken a tougher line. He cracked down on the smuggling and largely shuttered Gaza's border crossing with Egypt, traditionally the main exit point for Gazans traveling abroad. Last year, the border was open for just over 30 days.

Egypt has defended its actions on security grounds, noting it's fighting an Islamic insurgency in Sinai, along Gaza's border. At times, it has accused Hamas of aiding militants in Egypt.

But el-Sissi's tough policies and close security relations with Israel have hurt his credibility as a broker between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Repeated reconciliation attempts, sponsored by Egypt, have failed.

For years, President Mahmoud Abbas, based in the West Bank, tried to retain influence in Gaza by paying salaries to tens of thousands of former civil servants and funding fuel shipments from Israel to generate Gaza's electricity. The unintended result: Abbas provided a safety net that helped keep Hamas in power.

A frustrated Abbas has taken a tougher line over the past year, scaling back electricity subsidies, reducing salaries of his former employees and now threatening to cut them off altogether.

These tough measures have added to the hardship in Gaza but had little effect on Hamas. A renewed attempt at reconciliation has deadlocked over Hamas' refusal to disarm, collapsing last month after a bombing on the convoy of Abbas' prime minister during a stop in Gaza.

Much of the international donor community has boycotted Hamas, branded as a terrorist group. But it has also poured hundreds of millions of dollars of humanitarian aid into Gaza, at times at Israel's request, in effect propping up Hamas. With little to show for their efforts, weary donors have scaled back their contributions in recent years and given a lukewarm response to Israel's latest appeal to send more aid.

The U.S. has also cut some $300 million in money for UNWRA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Over half of Gaza's people rely on UNRWA for assistance. The agency is now scrambling to try to make up the funding gap, raising the danger of a new humanitarian crisis.

Federman, the AP's bureau chief for Israel and the Palestinian territories, has covered the region since 2003. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/joseffederman . Perry, who reported from Cairo, is the AP's Middle East editor and has covered the region since the 1990s. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/perry_dan .

This is an AP analysis on the roots of the conflict in Gaza.</s>Israeli troops have shot dead 31 Gaza Palestinians and wounded hundreds since the protests began, drawing international criticism of their lethal tactics. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

GAZA - The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said four of its members were killed in an apparent accidental blast in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

The group said in a statement that it was "mourning its fighters who were martyred during preparations".

It usually employs those terms to refer to casualties caused by the accidental detonation of weapons or explosives used in attacks against Israel.

The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed four fatalities in the incident. Medics at the scene in the Rafah area said the explosion was caused by Israel. But an Israeli military spokesman said the army was not involved.

"Contrary to reports currently circulating I can tell you that the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is not aware of any IDF fire in the area surrounding Rafah," the spokesman said.

Violence has flared in the Gaza Strip since March 30, when Palestinians began protests along the border area with Israel.

Israeli troops have shot dead 31 Gaza Palestinians and wounded hundreds since the protests began, drawing international criticism of their lethal tactics.

Protesters have set up tented camps near the frontier as a protest dubbed “The Great March of Return” - evoking a longtime call for refugees to regain ancestral homes in what is now Israel - moved into its third week.

Israel has declared a no-go zone close to the Gaza border fence.

Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005. The Palestinian enclave is ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement, designated by Israel and the West as a terrorist group.

Citing security concerns, Israel maintains a naval blockade of the coastal territory, keeping tight restrictions on the movement of Palestinians and goods across the frontier.

Egypt, battling an Islamist insurgency in neighbouring Sinai, keeps its border with Gaza largely closed.</s>GAZA (Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said four of its members were killed in an apparent accidental blast in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

The group said in a statement that it was “mourning its fighters who were martyred during preparations”.

It usually employs those terms to refer to casualties caused by the accidental detonation of weapons or explosives used in attacks against Israel.

The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed four fatalities in the incident. Medics at the scene in the Rafah area said the explosion was caused by Israel. But an Israeli military spokesman said the army was not involved.

“Contrary to reports currently circulating I can tell you that the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is not aware of any IDF fire in the area surrounding Rafah,” the spokesman said.

Violence has flared in the Gaza Strip since March 30, when Palestinians began protests along the border area with Israel.

Israeli troops have shot dead 31 Gaza Palestinians and wounded hundreds since the protests began, drawing international criticism of their lethal tactics.

Protesters have set up tented camps near the frontier as a protest dubbed “The Great March of Return” - evoking a longtime call for refugees to regain ancestral homes in what is now Israel - moved into its third week.

Israel has declared a no-go zone close to the Gaza border fence.

Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005. The Palestinian enclave is ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement, designated by Israel and the West as a terrorist group.

Citing security concerns, Israel maintains a naval blockade of the coastal territory, keeping tight restrictions on the movement of Palestinians and goods across the frontier.

Egypt, battling an Islamist insurgency in neighboring Sinai, keeps its border with Gaza largely closed.</s>ALONG THE ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER (AP) — The flareup of deadly violence in Gaza is of a new kind, even in the inventive annals of Mideast conflicts: Israeli soldiers shooting at Palestinian demonstrators burning tires and hurling firebombs across what looks like an international border, inflicting casualties while claiming concerns of a mass breach of the barrier.

But viewed another way, it's just the latest reflection of basic facts on the ground: the situation for the 2 million people of Gaza is extraordinarily harsh and difficult to resolve. It's not surprising so many would risk death by converging on the border fence, which has now happened three Fridays in a row, with dozens killed and hundreds injured.

By and large the people of Gaza — over two-thirds of them descended from refugees who left communities in what is now Israel — cannot leave their tiny strip of arid land along the Mediterranean coast. Anger toward Israel runs deep, yet dependence is great.

Israel blocks Gazans to the north and east, controlling who and what goes in and out. It blockades their waters to the west and prevents construction of sea and airports, with Egypt completing the blockade to the south.

Israel's argument is that Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, will use materials that come into the strip for building rockets, making bombs and digging attack tunnels. The fear is well-founded.

Israel also severely restricts Gazans leaving the territory in a policy it defends on security grounds, but which often looks punitive. Every exit, even to cross Israel en route to Jordan and beyond for medical, academic, professional or personal purposes, requires the approval of Israel — or Egypt, where the anti-Islamist government also deeply distrusts Hamas.

Israel and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, expelled by Hamas from Gaza in 2007, largely control power supplies. There are just a few hours of electricity a day.

Hamas remains committed to conflict with Israel, and attempts to pressure the population against Hamas are questionable. Gazans simply don't have the means to overthrow the well-armed group, even if they wanted.

Meanwhile, half the strip's workforce is unemployed. Much of the vast destruction from the last war with Israel, in 2014, still has not been rebuilt. Public entertainment is almost nonexistent and alcohol, in the name of Islam, is banned.

Adding insult to injury, the Palestinians do not have a currency. The few bills of cash in Gazan pockets are Israeli shekels emblazoned with the likenesses of Jewish religious and Zionist political figures.

Hamas says the border protests will continue through May 15, the anniversary of Israel's founding and a day of mourning for the Palestinians to mark their mass displacement during the war surrounding Israel's creation. It has signaled it may attempt a mass border breach, just as Israel fears. With Israel digging in its heels, and only muted debate in Israel over the high casualty count, bloodshed is likely to continue.

Here's a look at how the players in this tragic scenario have reached this point:

Hamas rose to global prominence with 1990s suicide bombings aimed at scuttling the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, killing hundreds of Israelis. It built up a formidable arsenal of rockets and other weapons. Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, ending a 38-year military presence, cleared the way for Hamas to violently seize control of Gaza in 2007 from its rival, the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, a year after winning elections..

Israel, which along with its Western allies considers Hamas a terrorist group, blockaded the territory along with Egypt, battering the meager economy. Jobs are hard to come by, Gaza's beaches are polluted by untreated sewage and tap water is undrinkable. Hamas, meanwhile, stifles dissent, bans public gatherings and promotes its conservative Islamic values.

Hamas also has fought three wars with Israel, sparked in part by sustained rocket fire on Israel. Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community have called on Hamas to disarm. But the group, founded in the late 1980s as a branch of the regionwide Muslim Brotherhood, has held on to its violent ideology, even as conditions deteriorate.

Israel claims some humanitarian credit for keeping border crossings open, allowing food, consumer goods and some construction materials to flow into the territory and some Gazans to leave. But sweeping export restrictions cripple the economy, and getting a travel permit is extremely difficult. Applicants are often called in for interrogations by Israel's Shin Bet security agency. Many are rejected on vague security grounds without explanation.

Israel says it does its best to ease the blockade given the security challenges. It accuses Hamas of trying to exploit and recruit civilians — a charge Hamas reciprocates against Israel.

During the three wars over the past decade, Israel inflicted heavy damage on Hamas, but also came under intense international criticism for the high civilian death toll and vast damage to Gaza's infrastructure. Toppling Hamas seems unlikely and the prospect of another war, with its uncertain results, has little appeal to Israel — as does renewed full occupation.

For years, Egypt played a double game with Gaza, restricting travel through its borders while tolerating a thriving cross-border smuggling industry. This allowed Hamas to sneak in weapons and consumer goods, enriching supporters who operated the tunnels and undermining the Israeli blockade.

Since taking power in 2014, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has taken a tougher line. He cracked down on the smuggling and largely shuttered Gaza's border crossing with Egypt, traditionally the main exit point for Gazans traveling abroad. Last year, the border was open for just over 30 days.

Egypt has defended its actions on security grounds, noting it's fighting an Islamic insurgency in Sinai, along Gaza's border. At times, it has accused Hamas of aiding militants in Egypt.

But el-Sissi's tough policies and close security relations with Israel have hurt his credibility as a broker between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Repeated reconciliation attempts, sponsored by Egypt, have failed.

For years, President Mahmoud Abbas, based in the West Bank, tried to retain influence in Gaza by paying salaries to tens of thousands of former civil servants and funding fuel shipments from Israel to generate Gaza's electricity. The unintended result: Abbas provided a safety net that helped keep Hamas in power.

A frustrated Abbas has taken a tougher line over the past year, scaling back electricity subsidies, reducing salaries of his former employees and now threatening to cut them off altogether.

These tough measures have added to the hardship in Gaza but had little effect on Hamas. A renewed attempt at reconciliation has deadlocked over Hamas' refusal to disarm, collapsing last month after a bombing on the convoy of Abbas' prime minister during a stop in Gaza.

Much of the international donor community has boycotted Hamas, branded as a terrorist group. But it has also poured hundreds of millions of dollars of humanitarian aid into Gaza, at times at Israel's request, in effect propping up Hamas. With little to show for their efforts, weary donors have scaled back their contributions in recent years and given a lukewarm response to Israel's latest appeal to send more aid.

The U.S. has also cut some $300 million in money for UNWRA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Over half of Gaza's people rely on UNRWA for assistance. The agency is now scrambling to try to make up the funding gap, raising the danger of a new humanitarian crisis.

Federman, the AP's bureau chief for Israel and the Palestinian territories, has covered the region since 2003. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/joseffederman . Perry, who reported from Cairo, is the AP's Middle East editor and has covered the region since the 1990s. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/perry_dan .

This is an AP analysis on the roots of the conflict in Gaza.</s>Protests against Israel's occupation have erupted in the Palestinian territories. What will they accomplish?

Palestinians gathered for the third consecutive on Friday at the Gaza-Israel border fence for what was labelled Burning the Flag of Israel Day.

In five different locations, Israeli flags were burned and Palestinian flags hoisted in their places.

It is all part of what is called the Great March of Return which will continue until May 15, the day Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, Arabic for "catastrophe," when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced off their land in the conflict that culminated in the creation of Israel in 1948.

Israeli soldiers have been using live ammunition against the protesters.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says 33 people have died during the last two weeks, including three children and a journalist. 3,000 people have been wounded.

Despite the risks, the Palestinians are refusing to give up. But what can they achieve?

Mustafa Barghouti - secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative and a former Palestinian information minister

Mitchell Barak - political commentator and former adviser to Shimon Peres, ex-Israeli president

Beverley Milton-Edwards - visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center and author of Hamas: The Islamic Resistance Movement</s>GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — It was a striking tableau: Ismail Haniya, the political leader of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has tried suicide bombs, rockets and attack tunnels in its long struggle with Israel, standing before portraits of the giants of nonviolent resistance — Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

Urging on Palestinians who have staged a new campaign of protests along the fence separating Gaza from Israel, Haniya likened their struggle to those for India’s independence, against racial segregation and discrimination in the United States, and against apartheid in South Africa.

“This blessed protest is national, peaceful, popular and civilized,” he said.

Minutes later, though, he called the same protests “a deadly weapon” with which to achieve the Palestinians’ goals, saying that guns, rockets and attack tunnels — the more familiar weapons that have kept Hamas listed as a terrorist group by the United States, European Union and Israel — remained at hand if needed.

Mixed messages have abounded during the so-called Great Return March, the grass-roots campaign that is now in its third week and seeks to highlight hardship in Gaza and demand the right to return to lands in Israel. While organizers promised peaceful disobedience of Israel’s orders to stay far from the fence, participants have thrown Molotov cocktails and other explosives, even attaching one to a kite.

And while Haniya and other Gaza leaders espoused Palestinian unity, and flew only the national flag, he also, without naming them, accused the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, leader of archrival Fatah, of presiding over a corrupt era of “humiliation, negotiations and security coordination” with Israel.

Few analysts, and certainly few Israelis, have suggested that Hamas may actually be rethinking its strategy merely because it has joined what are meant to be nonviolent mass protests and has name-checked the heroes of peaceful civil disobedience.

“It’s quite understandable that when those that proscribe Hamas as a terror organization see Haniya surrounded by icons of peace, it does little to dispel memories of very violent and bloody attacks, including by suicide bombs,” said Beverley Milton-Edwards, an expert on political Islam at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar who was a co-author of a history of Hamas.

But if Haniya’s unexpected nod to nonviolence struck some as contradictory and self-serving — as evidence of, one might say, a degree of chutzpah — his organization’s embrace of the Gaza protests had a clear logic that can be understood in much simpler terms.

Its experiment with popular resistance may or may not be wholehearted, but it is indisputably pragmatic.

A month or two ago, Hamas was cornered. Isolated regionally, rived by internal disputes, it had been unable to ameliorate a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and was increasingly humiliated by the failure of reconciliation talks with Ramallah.

“They had to make too many concessions in the hope of getting a little bit in exchange, and they wound up getting nothing whatsoever,” said Azzam Tamimi, an analyst for a London-based Arabic television channel with close ties to top Hamas leadership.

After a decade running Gaza, and hemmed in by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, Hamas was growing deeply unpopular.

“Though most Gazans would blame Israel fundamentally, and Egypt indirectly, a lot of Palestinians would just do away with all of Hamas to have a better life,” said Tareq Baconi, author of “Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance,” to be published next month by Stanford University Press.

The group was in such dire straits that analysts and Israeli security officials warned it might provoke a new war out of sheer desperation to shake things up.

Yet, even the prospect of war seemed unavailing. Neither Hamas nor Gaza’s 2 million residents, still recovering from the past two conflicts, in 2012 and 2014, had any appetite for another round of violence.

To its rockets Israel had responded with the Iron Dome anti-missile system. To its tunnels Israel was answering with a $2 billion reinforced-concrete wall buried deep underground. And on Sunday, Israel said it had uncovered and destroyed the longest operational tunnel yet from Gaza.

It was no surprise, then, that after a grass-roots idea for a peaceful, long-lasting protest along the Gaza fence started gaining widespread support, Hamas brought a halt to what had been a fairly steady tempo of rocket launches into Israel and threw its considerable organizational might behind the demonstrations.

By embracing the protests, Hamas cannily aligned itself with a popular movement that became even more popular as it took shape — and that generated an outpouring of international support when Israel responded with gunfire, killing dozens of Palestinians, almost all of them unarmed.

Instantly, the woebegone Palestinian cause and the crisis in Gaza were back in the news, and even the demand for a right of return to Israeli land — one that many supporters of a two-state solution seemed ready to throw overboard — was being taken seriously, cheering Palestinians in refugee camps and the diaspora.

The time was ripe for a popular movement in Gaza, where younger Palestinians, like those on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, have grown disillusioned with the moribund Oslo peace process for self-governance, Baconi said. Many want to turn the national movement into a campaign for civil rights, rather than simply for statehood.

“Hamas is just jumping on the bandwagon and recognizing the effectiveness of popular resistance at this moment,” he said.

In fact, though it is better known for armed struggle, Hamas has acknowledged the utility of popular resistance since it arose out of the First Intifada in 1987. And last year, it took another subtle step in that direction, adopting a new policy that acknowledged growing support for popular resistance.

Yet, not all Gazans see Hamas’ involvement in the new protests as laudable. Some accused the group of cynically hijacking the demonstrations to serve its own purposes, while still also using young men as cannon fodder.

“It’s beautiful that we find Hamas adopting this nonviolent struggle,” Mohammad Al Taluli, a 26-year-old activist due in court this week on criminal charges for criticizing Hamas online, said sarcastically. “One week before the peaceful protest there was a military maneuver for the Qassam brigades. Do they think they fool us?”

“The gun is no longer a choice,” Al Taluli added. “It’s a burden on anybody who carries it.”

Yohanan Tzoreff, a former adviser for Arab affairs in Israel’s civil administration in Gaza, viewed the protests through the lens of Hamas’ long-running political rivalry with Fatah, in which Hamas hopes eventually to seize control of the Palestine Liberation Organization, over which Abbas now maintains a tight grip.

“Which is the way that the people will adopt?” Tzoreff said. “The way of Ramallah, which means negotiations, negotiations, negotiations, and our entire fight will be at the international level; or the way in Gaza: popular resistance, with a lot of readiness to sacrifice?”

For the moment, the two groups are enjoying an uneasy public truce, with Abbas expressing solidarity with the Gaza protests.

“Fatah publicly support the protests, but behind closed doors, they criticize them as nothing more than a Hamas stunt,” Milton-Edwards said.

For Hamas, the fate of its new embrace of popular protest depends on the ability of its leaders, and the Gaza marchers, to walk a fine line along the fence with Israel.

Too much in the way of stone- or firebomb-throwing could spark another heavy-handed Israeli response — and the kind of Palestinian bloodbath that could compel Hamas to answer back with rockets.

“The more Israel uses disproportionate force, the harder it is for Hamas to continue holding back from retaliating,” Baconi said. “At some point, Hamas will start to lose legitimacy if it doesn’t.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.</s>A wounded Palestinian is evacuated during clashes with Israeli troops at a protest demanding the right to return to their homeland, at the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza City, 13 April 2018 Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

GAZA BORDER - Six Palestinian protesters were wounded on the Gaza-Israel border on Friday as Israeli troops fired on demonstrators hurling stones and burning tyres near the frontier fence.

One of the Palestinians was in critical condition, Palestinian medics said, as a protest dubbed "The Great March of Return" moved into its third week.

An Israeli military spokesman its troops were "responding with riot dispersal means while also firing in accordance with the rules of engagement".
The Palestinian Authority says an Egyptian delegation presently visiting Gaza City has asked Hamas to call off the Great March of Return.