GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Palestinian death toll in last week's mass protest on the Gaza-Israel border rose to 18 on Monday, officials said, as Israel rejected allegations of unlawful use of lethal force against unarmed demonstrators. "Since protests began on the Gaza border on Friday, over 1,500 Palestinians have been wounded according to the Gaza health ministry.Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, have stated numerous times that Israel would not let its sovereignty be breached or allow harm to come to its border fence with Gaza. Gaza's Hamas rulers have not said if the final aim of protests, which are to continue off and on for six weeks, is an attempted mass breach of the border fence. Officials said Israel has a right to defend its border, and that troops were instructed to target what the army described as the "main instigators." Israeli military officials have said troops would not allow protesters to cross or damage the border fence, and that protesters would not be permitted to get closer than 100 meters to the fence. Last Friday, thousands of Palestinians marched near the border fence between Israel and Gaza, many gathering around tent encampments set up several hundred metres from the frontier. Smaller groups moved closer to the fence, throwing stones, hurling firebombs or burning tyres. "The high number of deaths and injuries was the foreseeable consequence of granting soldiers leeway to use lethal force outside of life-threatening situations in violation of international norms, coupled with the longstanding culture of impunity within the Israeli army for serious abuses," the group said. "Human Rights Watch deputy director for the Middle East, Eric Goldstein, said: "Israeli soldiers were not merely using excessive force, but were apparently acting on orders that all but ensured a bloody military response to the Palestinian demonstrations." IDF soldiers will continue to fire at Palestinians from Gaza who come too close to Israel’s border fence that separates the Strip from the southern part of the country, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said on Tuesday morning. Liberman emphasized that all protestors would face Israeli snipers.The warning came just hours after a Palestinian man, Ahmad Arafeh, fell victim to Israeli gunfire along the Gaza border, bringing the death toll to 18 since Friday when around 30,000 Palestinians started rallying. Liberman told the Jerusalem Post: "Most of those who were killed are well-known terrorists who are active in Hamas' military wing or in Islamic Jihad. This included two armed Palestinian men with an en explosive device who, the army said, planned to execute a terror attack.Palestinians have, in turn, charged that those killed were unarmed protestors standing up for their right to return to land the Palestinians lost during the 1948 War of Independence.No Gaza inquiry, Israeli Defense Minister Liberman says, April 1, 2018 (Reuters)Liberman said he hoped the Palestinians now understood that this protest was pointless.“I think the other side [the Palestinians] understand that it is not worth it to continue and I warn those who do against any additional provocation,” Liberman said.“Most of those who were killed are well known terrorists who are active in Hamas’s military wing and in the Islamic Jihad,” said Liberman. The territory was occupied by the State of Israel since the moment of its formation.Ahead of looming protests this Friday, Israel's Foreign Ministry released a video in which it warned Hamas was "preparing for violent riots and armed combat on the Israeli border this coming Friday. The planned protests seem to be the last hope for Hamas to try to break a border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt in 2007, when the group seized Gaza from Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It failed to function in Gaza - where Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008 - because of disputes between Hamas and Fatah over its responsibilities. Hamas has said the border protests would continue until May 15, the 70th anniversary of Israel's creation. The date is mourned by Palestinians as their "nakba," or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands were uprooted in the 1948 Mideast war over Israel's creation. That deployment would still leave Hamas's armed wing -- analysts say it has at least 25,000 well-equipped fighters -- the dominant power in the Palestinian enclave of 2 million people. Life in Gaza has become increasingly harsh after more than a decade of closures, with residents enduring daily power outages lasting hours. The protesters say they also intend to use laser pointers to distracti army sharpshooters.Reuters contributed to this report
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman says the nation will maintain its tactics at the Gazan border of shooting anybody who approaches the fence, and calls on Hamas to cease hostilities in exchange for aid.