page_title: 2018–2019 Gaza border protests
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 2018–2019 Gaza border protests / Background
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of the Israel-Border Gaza Strip Barrier near the Karni Crossing.
context_page_description: The 2018–2019 Gaza border protests, by the organiser called the Great March of Return, were a series of demonstrations held each Friday in the Gaza Strip near the Gaza-Israel border from 30 March 2018 and onwards. The demonstrators demanded that the Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return to lands they were displaced from in what is now Israel. They also protested against Israel's Gaza blockade and United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.
  The first demonstrations were organized by independent activists, but the initiative was soon endorsed by Hamas, as well as other major factions in Gaza. The activists who planned the Great March of Return intended it to last only from 30 March to 15 May but the demonstrations continued for almost 18 months until Hamas on 27 December 2019 announced that they would be postponed.
  Thirty thousand Palestinians participated in the first demonstration on 30 March. Larger protests took place on the following Fridays, 6 April, 13 April, 20 April, 27 April, 4 May, and 11 May — each of which involved at least 10,000 demonstrators — while smaller numbers attend activities during the week.
context_section_description: In 2005, Israel withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip and allowed the Palestinian authority to take control. Despite the withdrawal, Israel still maintains direct external control over everyday life in Gaza, such as the territory's air and maritime space, most of its land crossings, electricity and water supply and other utilities. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Palestinians in Gaza still remain protected persons under the articles of the Geneva Conventions.
  Following the Battle of Gaza in 2007, Hamas took full control over the strip and expelled its rival and current ruler of the West Bank, Fatah. The takeover by Hamas led Israel and Egypt to impose a land, air and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip. The blockade has had disastrous effects on Gaza's population.
  After the 2014 Gaza war, the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsened. Hamas struggled to manage civil life in Gaza, and the new leadership under Yahya Sinwar hoped to get the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority to take control of Gaza's civil issues, through the 2017 Fatah–Hamas Agreement, but the agreement failed. According to Israeli journalist Amos Harel, Hamas, which failed to lift the blockade for years, sought to use the demonstrations as a means to get out its strategical crisis, as it found armed conflict with Israel to be ineffective.
  The principal demand of the protests was the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to present-day Israel. A majority of Gaza's population consists of refugees from the 1948 Palestine War and their descendants. Israel rejected any right of return, fearing that Jews would become a minority in Israel if too many Palestinians returned.
caption: The Israel-Gaza barrier seen from the Israeli side
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