The Great March of Return

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.