Riots on Gaza border
Photo: EPA
IDF warns Gazans against 'March of Anarchy'
In video posted in Arabic on IDF's Facebook page, Gazans are warned not to approach border fence during their planned 'Great March of Return' on Friday, and told that Hamas is exploiting them for sinister schemes instead if remedying enclave's myriad problems.
The IDF warned residents of the Gaza Strip Tuesday evening not to approach the border fence with Israel during their “Great March of Return” planned for Friday, and described it as a “March of Anarchy.”
Israeli security forces are bracing for the upcoming mass march in the strip, and preparing for extreme scenarios envising diversion operations designed to enable Hamas terrorists to infiltrate into Israel while Israeli security forces are dealing with rioters spread across the border.
In a video posted in Arabic on the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit Facebook page, residents were told that Hamas was using them as a decoy in its violent schemes rather than providing solutions to the problems that Gazans face.
(Photo: EPA)
“Hamas is using you. Instead of dealing with problems such as an electricity shortage, infrastructure and unemployment in the strip, it is planning an insignificant march,” the message said, adding in a play of words that the march was not one of return but of anarchy.
In addition to the heightened alertness, the IDF warns residents of the coastal enclave not to engage in activities of public disturbances, while prison services are preparing to take in dozens of people arrested.
The majority of those arrested will be sent to Ketziot Prison in the Negev and the prison services will decide will decide whether or not to apply emergency regulations.
Screenshot from IDF warning to Gaza (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
On Tuesday evening, IDF soldiers, hundreds of whom were from the Givati and Nahal Brigades, began preparing and training for their arrival at the end of the week at the Gaza Division.
They will join Golani soldiers and the Armored Corps who are currently responsible for the border area.
(Photo: EPA)
As part of the beefed-up deployment, the forces have been instructed to prepare not only to deal with rioters who could march beyond the border fence, but particularly with a situation in which Hamas could exploit the chaos in order to have people infiltrate into Israeli territory while soldiers’ attention is focused on suppressing the disorder in various flashpoints.
Israeli security forces are particularly cautious of sinister attempts to exploit the planned riots to send terrorists across the border, but also to plant bombs nearby to be detonated when an IDF patrol approaches
On March 17, an explosion occurred in the eastern portion of the Gaza Strip, in the vicinity of the area in which two explosive devices detonated two days earlier. The incident marked the fifth time in three months a device was detonated near the Gaza fence.
Activists assemble near border aheaed of the march (Photo: AFP)
In recent weeks, the army has claimed that Palestinians, who protest every week at the border, have been exploited by Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip on at least three occasions to plant bombs.
Ynet also learned that on December 20 last year, IDF soldiers spotted a powerful bomb being planted by Palestinian rioters who were protesting near the border fence. Sappers neutralized the bomb without any incident using lasers that caused it to explode from afar.
(Photo: AFP)
In recent weeks, the army has claimed that Palestinians, who protest every week at the border, have been exploited by Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip on at least three occasions to plant bombs.
Hamas has said that the large scale protests will continue until Israel 70th birthday, which falls on the same day as Nakba Day when Palestinians mark what they describe the “catastrophe” of 1948 that led to Israel’s independence.
