Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman prevented the entrance of 110 Palestinians to Israel, who were planning to attend the joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial ceremony in Tel Aviv next week, on the national Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism.



In a statement issued on Tuesday, Liberman said: “I will not allow the desecration of memorial day. This ceremony is not a memorial event but a display of bad taste and insensitivity that harms our dear bereaved families.”





In response to the decision, Combatants for Peace and the Parents Circle – Families Forum - the organizations who organize the ceremony - said that the defense minister is the one who is desecrating the memorial with his actions.“He is harming Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families who ask to promote a discourse of reconciliation,” a statement said.“This is a political and cynical use of a tool that is meant to be for security purposes. His goal is to harm Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families that have asked to commemorate memorial day together, out of the mutual respect and understating that pain and sorrow are not reserved for only one side.”Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg said that by barring the Palestinians, Liberman is trying to score political points “on the back of the families who paid the price of this conflict with blood.”“Liberman wants to make memorial day a controversial issue and use his security authority to prevent these families from commemorating it as they wish,” she said.“They want to do it in peaceful ways, with a true will to stop the bloodshed. The Netanyahu-Liberman government wants to use bereavement to create division among Israeli citizens,” she added.This would be the 13th consecutive year that the joint ceremony would be held.It was recently announced that Man Booker International Prize laureate David Grossman, who lost his son Uri in the second Lebanon war in 2006, would be one of the main speakers at the ceremony. Grossman will receive the Israel Prize two days later, on the 70th independence day.Last year, far-right activist gathered near the entrance of the event hall, shouted at the attendees and called them “traitors,” and “Nazis.” Some protesters spat at the attendees entering the hall and threw water bottles at them.After the event, Education Minister Naftali Bennett appeared to have tweeted on his official account, “If the report is true, I expect people who grieve for baby murderers and people who blew up buses would be a bit less sensitive about spitting, pushing and water.”Bennett then deleted the tweet, denied that he was the one writing it, and said that a student working for him tweeted it from his account.“So when I was visiting the family of Emmanuel Moreno, one of my students tweeted a pointless tweet, and there was a commotion. Relax, this is memorial day,” he tweeted. </s> Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman prevented the entrance of 110 Palestinians to Israel, who were planning to attend the joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial ceremony in Tel Aviv next week, on Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars.



In a statement issued on Tuesday, Liberman said: “I will not allow the desecration of Remembrance Day. This ceremony is not a memorial event but a display of bad taste and insensitivity that harms our dear bereaved families.”

In response to the decision, Combatants for Peace and the Parents Circle-Families Forum – the organizations that organize the ceremony – said that the defense minister is the one who is desecrating the memorial with his actions.“He is harming Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families who seek to promote a discourse of reconciliation,” a statement said.“This is a political and cynical use of a tool that is meant to be for security purposes, a use whose whole goal is to deal a blow to Israeli and Palestinians bereaved families that seek to commemorate Remembrance Day together, out of the mutual respect and recognition that pain and sorrow are not the exclusive legacy of any side.”Meretz chairwoman Tamar Zandberg said that Liberman is trying to score political points “on the backs of the families who paid the price of this conflict with blood.“Liberman wants to make Remembrance Day into a controversial issue, and use his security authorities to prevent the families from commemorating it as they wish,” she said.“They want to do it in peaceful ways, with a true will to stop the bloodshed. The Netanyahu-Liberman government wants to use the bereavement to create division among Israeli citizens,” she added.This would be the 13th consecutive year that the joint ceremony would be held.It was recently announced that Man Booker International Prize laureate David Grossman, who lost his son Uri in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, would be one of the main speakers at the ceremony. Grossman will receive the Israel Prize on Independence Day.Last year, far-right activists gathered near the entrance to the hall where the event was held, shouted at the attendees and called them “traitors” and “Nazis.” Some protesters spat at the attendees entering the hall and threw water bottles at them.A tweet that appeared on the Twitter account of Education Minister Naftali Bennett after the event said that “if the report is true, I expect from people who grieve over the murderers of babies and people who blew up buses that they be a bit less sensitive about spitting, pushing and water.”Bennett then deleted the tweet, denied that he was the one who wrote it, and said that a student working for him tweeted it from his account.“So when I was visiting the family of Emmanuel Moreno, one of my students tweeted a pointless tweet, and there is a commotion. Relax, this is Remembrance Day,” he tweeted.

var cont = `Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>



`; document.getElementById("linkPremium").innerHTML = cont; (function (v, i){ }); </s> Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday the crossing would reopen if the situation on the border was calm.

"Following the decision of the Minister of Defense, Mr. Avigdor Liberman, in consultation with the Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, the main cargo crossing into Gaza, the Kerem Shalom crossing, will be re-opened this morning for full activity," the IDF said on Twitter.

The IDF added that "the designated fishing zone off the Gaza Strip will be expanded to nine nautical miles," or 10.3 miles.

The current wave of tension between the Israelis and the Palestinians near the Gaza border has been mounting since late March, which marked the beginning of the Palestinian protest campaign against Israel, dubbed the Great March of Return. Over 160 Palestinians were killed in clashes since that time.

Last Wednesday, Palestinians launched about 180 rockets and mortar shells from Gaza, injuring seven Israelis, while the IDF responded with over 150 airstrikes aimed at military targets in the Gaza Strip. </s> After truck bomb attack thwarted, checkpoint closed Liberman orders closure of northern Samaria checkpoint until further notice, after PA truck headed for Jewish communities found with bomb. Arutz Sheva Staff,

Crossings Authority in Defense Ministry The truck carrying the bomb Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman ordered the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, to close until further notice the Reihan checkpoint after a bomb was discovered yesterday, Wednesday, in a PA Arab truck passing through the checkpoint.



Following the closure of the checkpoint, west of Jenin, only humanitarian cases approved by the Civil Administration will be allowed through.



Yesterday, officials discovered a powerful explosive device hidden in the roof of a PA truck that reached the checkpoint. The truck had merchandise intended for Jewish communities in the seam zone. The Arab driver was arrested.



Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman welcomed the seizure of the truck bomb and said, "The vigilance and professionalism of the crossings authority at the Defense Ministry led to the discovery of a bomb and the thwarting of a large-scale attack on the 70th Independence Day.”



"We will pursue those who planned to harm our holiday. They will not rest until we get our hands on them, "Liberman promised.





top </s> 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.



“Anyone who comes close to the fence will endanger their lives,” said Liberman during a visit to the southern border.





He dismissed international criticism of his live fire policy by the UN and European countries as he warned the thousands of Gaza participants in the "March of Return" not to try to cross into Israel by breaking through the border fence.The six-week event was launched last Friday with some 30,000 participants. IDF soldiers killed 17 of the protestors . The army has since said that those killed were among protesters close to the fence who were acting violently toward its soldiers. 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. “These are not innocent civilians who came to peacefully protest,” he added.“We are not provoking the people in Gaza. We are protecting our citizens,” he said.“We have set very clear rules [of engagement] and we have no intention of changing them,” Liberman said.“We are determined to protect the security of Israeli citizens, of course, first and foremost, in the area of Gaza, and there will be no compromise on this issue, no flexibility,” said Liberman.Gaza residents who want to see true change should invest their energies in regime change by working to remove Hamas from power, rather than in protests against Israel, said Liberman.Hamas leaders have invested $260 million in terror infrastructure in Gaza rather than in water, electricity or education for their people, charged Liberman.Israel is prepared to help Gaza rehabilitate itself economically if Hamas agrees to demilitarize the area, Liberman said.According to media reports, Hamas has asked the Arab League to turn to the International Criminal Court at The Hague with regard to the Gaza deaths.The Left-wing group B’Tselem said that Liberman’s decision to continue to order his soldiers to shoot at demonstrators was frightening and illegal.“An order to fire at unarmed demonstrators who pose no danger to anyone is a blatantly illegal,” B’Teslem said.“The fact that, after the events of Friday and the number of wounded and killed in the course of the attack, the defense minister repeats the same orders is frightening. The government of Israel and the army must change the orders and make it clear that it is forbidden to fire on demonstrators."Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, 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.”“The result was foreseeable deaths and injuries of demonstrators on the other side of a border who posed no imminent threat to life," Goldstein said.These kinds of actions “highlight the importance of the International Criminal Court prosecutor opening a formal investigation into serious international crimes in Palestine,” HRW said.Among the stories of the dead that Palestinians have promoted on social media is that of artist Mohammad Abu Umr, whose work included sand sculptures on the Gaza beach.Israel has listed him as one of the ten known terrorists who were killed, and Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office tweeted a photo of him in fatigues with a gun and a headband. </s> Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Saturday praised the actions of security forces during violent protests in the Gaza Strip on Friday, which Liberman called “a terrorist march.” The defense minister also indicated a Palestinian photo-journalist who was killed during Friday’s clashes had placed his life in danger by operating a drone above Israeli soldiers.

Netanyahu said Palestinians “speak of human rights, but they really want to crush the Jewish state. We won’t let them.”

Liberman said the Passover holiday “was one of the quietest and safest we have known in recent years. Our preparation on the Gaza border proved itself.”

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He said Israelis were indebted to “thousands” in the military, police, and Shin Bet security agency “who worked very hard and thwarted any attempt to challenge us.”

Some 20,000 Gazans participated in Friday’s second successive Hamas-backed “March of Return” at the Gaza border. The army said protesters burned tires and threw bombs, Molotov cocktails, and rocks at Israeli soldiers. Several attempts were made to breach the border fence. Soldiers responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, and in some cases live fire. Palestinians said nine Gazans were killed and over 1,000 wounded in the clashes.

The demonstrations largely abated by Saturday, but three Palestinians were wounded by Israeli forces in a small clash east of Gaza City in the afternoon, one of them seriously, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Netanyahu said he saluted “the soldiers of the IDF who keep us safe…from those who pretend to speak of human rights, while holding a Nazi flag. Here is the naked truth. They speak of human rights, but they really want to crush the Jewish state. We won’t let them. We’ll stand strong. We’ll keep our country safe.”

Pictures from Gaza on Friday showed Nazi imagery among some protesters’ Palestinian flags.

Liberman characterized the protest as “a terrorist march.” He said that Hamas had “sent terrorists disguised as civilians to challenge our sovereignty and the world portrays it as a civil protest.”

He lambasted the world’s “hypocrisy,” noting that dozens of civilians had been killed in the latest regime airstrikes in Syria, “but the UN secretary general did not call for an investigative committee, the UN Security Council did not convene, the Arab League ignored it, and the BBC didn’t see or hear any of it.”

The BBC did report on the latest deadly airstrikes.

On the subject of Palestinian photographer Yasser Murtaja, who was killed while covering the protests, Liberman said “I don’t know who is or isn’t a photographer. Anyone who operates drones above IDF soldiers needs to understand he’s putting himself in danger.”

Murtaja was known to use camera drones to capture photographs, and Israel Radio, citing unnamed sources in Gaza, reported that he was doing so when he was shot Friday. Several Palestinian journalists denied the claim to Reuters.

Liberman added: “We’ve seen dozens of cases where Hamas terrorists used ambulances, dressed up as Red Crescent personnel and disguised themselves as journalists. We won’t take an chances.”

Avi Gabbay, head of the opposition’s Zionist Union, was also supportive of the army’s conduct, saying “The IDF showed determination, sound judgement and created deterrence in the face of Hamas’s provocations.”

But Gabbay said it was now up to Israel’s political leadership to “prevent the next round of fighting.”

The US on Friday blocked a UN Security Council statement supporting the right of Palestinians to “demonstrate peacefully” and endorsing Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for an independent investigation into deadly protests in Gaza.

The European Union on Saturday said the deaths of Palestinian protesters along the Gaza border “raise serious questions about proportionate use of force” by Israel.

The Arab League’s UN Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said Arab ministers would discuss options to pursue the Palestinian issue at a meeting in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on April 12 ahead of a summit of Arab leaders in the country on April 15.

After Friday’s protest the Israeli army said it had managed to frustrate Hamas’s “manipulative” efforts to breach the Gaza border fence and carry out acts of terrorism under the cover of a public protest.

The IDF released video footage of Gazans attempting to breach or target the fence under cover of huge plumes of black smoke caused by the burning of tires close to the border, and Israeli television showed footage of what appeared to be teenage Gazans rolling tires close to the border fence.

“What we’re seeing is violent disturbances under cover of which Hamas is trying to carry out acts of terrorism,” said Maj-Gen. Eyal Zamir, the head of the IDF’s Southern Command, terming the tactic “manipulation by Hamas.”

“Hamas sent children out ahead [toward the fence], cynically using them,” the IDF’s spokesman, Ronen Manelis, said on Friday night. Manelis specified that eight explosive devices and numerous petrol bombs were thrown, and that the IDF faced several attempts “to cut through the fence.”

“There were attempts to carry out acts of terrorism … using the smoke [from burning tires] for cover,” he said, but the IDF had ensured the fence was not breached.

“The army did its job,” said Manelis. “The fence was not breached and [Israel’s] sovereignty was not harmed.”

Israeli military officials indicated that the IDF’s warnings to Gazans to stay back from the fence, and its firm defense of the border at last week’s protests, had a deterrent effect. Far fewer demonstrators came near the fence, they said.

Hadashot TV news said imams at prayer sessions near the border during the day told Gazans to stay at least 300 meters from the border. Hamas leaders, who did circulate among the demonstrators, did not approach as close to the fence as they did a week ago, it also reported.

IDF officials said Hamas was seeking “a victory picture” of its members breaching the fence, and/or crossing into Israel, and that the IDF had thus far prevented this. They said Hamas now faced the challenge of maintaining momentum for the planned ongoing protests, and that it had been disingenuously assuring Gazans in recent days that the protests would be peaceful so that they would continue to come to the demonstrations.

The Palestinian Authority, in a statement published in Ramallah Friday evening, called on its envoys to the UN, the Arab League and the EU to immediately work with all international parties to “stop this deliberate brutality and killing of innocent and defenseless people.”

The PA also renewed its call to provide “international protection” for the Palestinians.

Friday’s demonstration was the second of what Gaza’s ruling Hamas terror group said would be several weeks of “March of Return” protests which Hamas leaders say ultimately aim to see the removal of the border and the liberation of Palestine.

An Islamist terror group, Hamas violently took control of Gaza from Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew its military and civilian presence from the Strip. Israel and Egypt maintain a security blockade of Gaza. Israel says this is vital to prevent Hamas — which has fought three rounds of conflict against Israel since seizing Gaza, firing thousands of rockets into Israel and digging dozens of attack tunnels under the border — from importing weaponry.

Khaled Abu Toameh contributed to this report. </s> Israelis basked in national pride and prepared for a Jerusalem march expected to draw tens of thousands Sunday, a day ahead of the controversial US embassy move to the disputed city.

Palestinians meanwhile readied for their own protests on Monday over the embassy's inauguration, including another mass demonstration in the Gaza Strip near the border with Israel.

Sunday's Jerusalem march begins a week of high tension between Israelis and Palestinians, highlighted by the embassy inauguration to be attended by a Washington delegation including US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner.

Both arrived in Israel on Sunday.

The embassy move will take place on the 70th anniversary of Israel's founding, while the following day Palestinians will mark the Nakba, or "catastrophe," commemorating the more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation.

Palestinian protests are also planned for Tuesday.

For Israelis, Sunday is Jerusalem Day, an annual celebration of the "reunification" of the city following the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israel occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1967. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.

This year's celebration takes on added significance due to the embassy move the following day.

The annual march to the Western Wall includes many hardline religious nationalists who oppose a Palestinian state, often resulting in clashes as they pass through mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- bolstered in recent days by Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal -- opened a special cabinet meeting at Jerusalem's Bible Lands Museum by again lauding the embassy move.

"Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible approximately 650 times," Netanyahu said.

"The reason is simple: For over 3,000 years it has been the capital of our people, and only of our people."

Around 1,000 police officers will be positioned around the US embassy and surrounding neighbourhoods for Monday's inauguration, said spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Israel's army said it would almost double the number of troops surrounding the Gaza Strip and in the occupied West Bank.

On Sunday, scuffles broke out between Israelis visiting the Haram al-Sharif holy compound in east Jerusalem's Old City, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and Muslim security officers.

Jews are allowed to visit the site but not pray there to avoid provoking tensions and police said a number of visitors were removed for not following the rules.

"It is not a provocation. It's our property," said Nili Naoun, 42, an Israeli who arrived at the holy site with her family at 7:00 am.

A number of Palestinian shop owners in the Old City said they planned to close when the march passed through in case anyone tried to vandalise their shops, as has occurred in the past.

There were already tensions in the weeks before the embassy move.

Fifty-four Palestinians have been killed in protests and clashes since March 30 along the Gaza Strip's border with Israel.

No Israelis have been wounded and the military has faced criticism over the use of live fire.

Israel says it only opens fire when necessary to stop infiltrations, attacks and damage to the border fence, while accusing Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the blockaded Gaza Strip, of seeking to use the protests as cover to carry out violence.

On Sunday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya headed to Cairo for talks amid speculation over whether Egypt is attempting to calm the situation.

The embassy move has provoked Palestinian anger and led them to freeze ties with the White House.

But US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who has been a supporter of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, said he believed the Palestinians' position "will change over time."

He told Fox News the United States "is there to help the Palestinians" and "there is no basis" to think the embassy move will work against peace.

Jerusalem's status is perhaps the thorniest issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel considers the entire city its capital, while the Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

In the decades since 1967, international consensus has been that the city's status must be negotiated between the two sides, but Trump broke with that to global outrage.

Like Friedman, he has argued that it helps make peace possible by taking Jerusalem "off the table", but many have pointed out that he has not announced any concessions in return from Israel. </s> Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Sunday he had asked the attorney general to investigate the leaders of a left-wing group that called on Israeli soldiers to refuse orders to open fire at Palestinian protesters during clashes on the border with the Gaza Strip.

The organization, B’Tselem, lashed out in response, saying Liberman himself was guilty of incitement by demanding that soldiers carry out a manifestly illegal order.

In a tweet Sunday, Liberman said he had asked Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to “probe the heads of B’Tselem for incitement to disobedience after their call for soldiers to refuse orders in defending the border.”

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He was referring to advertisements that B’Tselem took out in Hebrew-language newspapers Thursday in which the group urged Israel Defense Forces soldiers to refuse to fire their weapons at unarmed protesters during demonstrations planned by the Palestinian terror group Hamas at the Gaza border for the next day.

“This subversive and marginal organization, together with haters of Israel and the international media, are trying to delegitimize our soldiers, whose behavior is both legal and moral in an extremely complex situation,” Liberman continued. “We will put an end to this.”

In response to Liberman’s comments, B’Tselem issued a statement reiterating its call for soldiers to refuse what it called “manifestly illegal orders” to use lethal force against demonstrators who didn’t pose a threat to lives. The group slammed the minister for a Sunday radio interview in which he said all of the protesters were being “paid by Hamas” and acting on behalf of the terror group.

“Liberman’s dangerous comments this morning, as though ‘there were no civilians there’ and that all those taking part in the demonstrations in Gaza are Hamas members whom it is legitimate to shoot and kill, demonstrates a deep contempt for basic moral principles,” B’Tselem said.

The organization noted that Article 110 of Israel’s penal code, which it said Liberman was relying on, only outlaws urging soldiers to refuse a legal order — while shooting at unarmed Gazans, the group said, was a manifestly illegal order.

“Therefore, the minister’s request is baseless. The defense minister is the one inciting to break the law, and it is good that the attorney general has an opportunity to make that clear.”

Last week, B’Tselem said it was aiming to inform soldiers that they are legally obligated to refuse orders to shoot unarmed Palestinian protesters, saying such orders are “manifestly illegal.”

Israeli military law requires soldiers to disobey “manifestly illegal” commands, meaning illegal orders that could result in loss of life. In the case of illegal orders that do not threaten a life, soldiers are required to carry them out and then report them to higher echelons in the military.

“B’Tselem warned of the expected outcome of this policy and now, ahead of the expected demonstrations this Friday, it is again clarifying that shooting unarmed demonstrators is illegal and that orders to shoot in this manner are manifestly illegal,” the group wrote in its Hebrew advertisements.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered along the Gaza border on Friday, burning tires and throwing firebombs and rocks at Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas and live fire, the army and witnesses said, as Palestinians held a second “March of Return” protest. Nine Gazans were killed and over 1,000 wounded in the day’s clashes.

The IDF said it thwarted multiple efforts to breach the border fence — and that it used live fire to do so in some instances — as well as attempts to activate bombs against the troops under the cover of smoke from the protests.

Beyond the public rhetoric between B’Tselem and some politicians, there is a substantive disagreement between the army and several left-wing groups who have criticized the Palestinian deaths during the border clashes.

A spokesperson for B’Tselem has explained that the group considers anyone not carrying a firearm or explosive device to be “unarmed,” even if they are throwing firebombs or rocks over the border fence, since these are less likely to cause lethal harm to soldiers on the Israeli side.

The IDF, in keeping with many international legal sources, maintains that firebombs and rocks pose a sufficient and credible threat to soldiers to warrant the use of live fire.

The army also maintains that attempts to sabotage and break through the security fence separating Gaza and Israeli usually justify the use of gunfire as such actions could lead to a mass infiltration of Israeli territory, including by terror groups, something the IDF is required to prevent.

Friday’s demonstration was the second of what Gaza’s ruling Hamas terror group said would be several weeks of “March of Return” protests which Hamas leaders say ultimately aim to see the removal of the border and the liberation of Palestine.

Israel has accused Hamas of trying to carry out border attacks under the cover of large protests and said it will prevent a breach of the fence at all costs.

An Islamist terror group, Hamas violently took control of Gaza from Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew its military and civilian presence from the Strip. Israel and Egypt maintain a security blockade of Gaza. Israel says this is vital to prevent Hamas — which has fought three rounds of conflict against Israel since seizing Gaza, firing thousands of rockets into Israel and digging dozens of attack tunnels under the border — from importing weaponry.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. </s> Days after the bloodshed along the border with Gaza, Israel's defense minister, Avigdor Liberman, has vowed a lethal response to those who approach the border fence again."Anyone who comes close to the fence will endanger their lives," Liberman said in a video message for the Jerusalem Post from Kibbutz Holit, close to the southern Gaza Strip. 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. A six-week campaign called 'The Great Return March' is a protest against Israeli settlements on the former Palestinian territory which is now Israel.The bloodshed elicited international concern and condemnation. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, and human rights group Amnesty International called for an "independent and transparent investigation."However,The minister said troops acted appropriately and fired only at Palestinian protestors who posed a threat. The IDF claimed all of the Palestinians who were shot dead at the border were Hamas fighters.Human Rights Watch defined such claims as attemptsPalestinians said the protestors were unarmed and defenseless refugees, as some of them were demanding the right to return home to the territory presently occupied by Israel, which was lost during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. 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 video is in addition to a Foreign Ministry message that Palestinians "are violent rioters, not peaceful demonstrators."During his visit to the border of the Gaza Strip, the defense minister said that protestors were "not innocent civilians who came to protest." 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."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." The organization called on the Israeli government to recognize that "even in the absence of serious domestic oversight, officials who order unlawful lethal force may become subject to prosecution abroad as a matter of universal jurisdiction or in international judicial forums."
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman bars 110 Palestinians from entering Israel to attend a joint Israeli-Palestinian Remembrance Day ceremony in Tel Aviv.