The Great March of Return
Tens of thousands of Gazans join weekly protests at the boundary fence demanding the right of return; Israeli snipers kill more than 180 demonstrators.
On 30 March 2018 — Land Day — tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza began a series of weekly demonstrations along the fence separating the territory from Israel. The Great March of Return demanded an end to the blockade and the implementation of the refugees’ right of return, seventy years after the Nakba.
Israeli forces responded to the largely unarmed protests with live fire, including sniper fire. According to the UN Commission of Inquiry established by the Human Rights Council, Israeli security forces killed 189 Palestinians during the demonstrations in 2018, among them children, journalists, and clearly marked medics; thousands more were wounded, many with life-changing injuries. The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity may have been committed.
The protests continued weekly into 2019 before being suspended at the end of that year. One Israeli soldier was killed in the context of the demonstrations during the period investigated by the Commission.
Cited works
2- ohchr.org — index(opens in a new tab)https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/co-iopt/index
- ochaopt.org(opens in a new tab)https://www.ochaopt.org/
Connected in the archive
5 connected records5 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
names this record — 3 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Gaza: Siege and Sumud
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: 2018: the unarmed march to the fence — and the UN Commission of Inquiry.
- Razan al-Najjarرزان النجار
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: When the Great March of Return protests began along Gaza's perimeter fence in March 2018, she was among the first women to volunteer as a field medic, working long shifts treating tear-gas inhalation and gunshot wounds.
- Razan al-Najjarرزان النجار
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Razan al-Najjar, 21, was a volunteer paramedic from the Khan Younis area who spent her Fridays during the 2018 Great March of Return protests treating demonstrators wounded near the fence between Gaza and Israel, becoming one of the best-known medics of the protest movement.
named in this record — 2 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Land Day
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: On 30 March 2018 — Land Day — tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza began a series of weekly demonstrations along the fence separating the territory from Israel.
- Land Day
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: On 30 March 2018 — Land Day — tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza began a series of weekly demonstrations along the fence separating the territory from Israel.
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“The Great March of Return.” Timeline, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/timeline/great-march-of-return.- MLA
“The Great March of Return.” Timeline, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/timeline/great-march-of-return. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-great-march-of-return, title = {The Great March of Return}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/timeline/great-march-of-return}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }