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Story Transcript

NOOR HARAZEEN: At least fifty-two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and more than two thousand three hundred others were injured in the Gaza Strip on Monday, as hundreds of thousands of armless demonstrators gathered at the border fence which separates Gaza from Israel, ahead of the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.

ABU MOHAMMED: Sooner or later we will enter our lands and we will free it and we will kick the occupiers our of our land. We will use every way possible, if it’s with burnt tires, flaming kites or stones. Even if we get killed trying, the people will not stop fighting for their rights.

NOOR HARAZEEN: According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, six of the slain Palestinians were minors under the age of eighteen, including one girl, while tens of Palestinian medics and journalists were among the thousands of injured.

ESSAM HAMAD: This huge crowd came in and answered to the move of the United States administration to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which means that the administration recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. And this crowd sends a rejection message to all the world, that the Palestinian people will never accept that at all. And they have to receive this message.

NOOR HARAZEEN: Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people are heading to the borderline between Gaza and Israel in order to participate in The Great March of Return since yesterday. And the mosques here in the Gaza Strip has been, through the speakers, calling and encouraging the people to head to the borderline between Gaza and Israel, to demand for the right of return and also to show their rejection of the latest U.S. decision of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The Palestinian factions, from their side- Hamas, PLF, PLDF, the Islamic Jihad- have been asking their supporters to also join the protests. Hamas, from their side, they said in a statement that the borders of Israel are not internationally recognized, therefore they should not be respected. So, the people here in Gaza tried to cross the border fence, and in some areas, they succeeded to cut the border fence and to enter the Palestinian occupied territories, which is now called Israel. The Israeli side responded by firing tear gas canisters and also live and rubber bullets.

Protesters demonstrated against the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, and ahead of May 15, the seventieth anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, when over seven hundred fifty thousand Palestinians were expelled from their homelands with the creation of the state of Israel.

IVANKA TRUMP: On behalf of the 45th president of the United States of America, we welcome you officially, and for the first time, to the embassy of the United States, here in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Thank you.

NOOR HARAZEEN: Noor Harazeen for The Real News, Gaza.