NEW YORK — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an independent inquiry into Friday’s violence in Gaza that left at least 17 Palestinians dead and more than 1,400 injured.
Guterres made his comments late Friday before an emergency UN Security Council meeting to address the issue. UN spokesman Farhan Haq relayed his statement to the media.
“This tragedy underlines the urgency of revitalizing the peace process aiming at creating the conditions for a return to meaningful negotiations for a peaceful solution that will allow Palestinians and Israelis to live side by side peacefully and in security,” Guterres was reported as saying.
Funerals are being held Saturday for those killed when thousands of Palestinians marched to Gaza’s border with Israel a day earlier.
The first in a series of protests planned through mid-May, Friday marked Land Day, when Palestinian land was confiscated by Israel in 1976.
The day quickly turned into the bloodiest day in Gaza since the 2014 war as Palestinian protesters and Israeli military clashed along the fence.
In northern Gaza, CNN witnessed at least two dozen people being taken away by ambulances in a half-hour span Friday as protests started across Gaza. CNN also saw a small number of protesters throwing rocks. People were injured by live rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas. The majority were young men — one woman was among the injured.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health told CNN that doctors were already running out of essential emergency medicine and blood for transfusions due to the high number of injured.
In an article on its website, the United Nations reported that Tayé-Brook Zerihoun, the deputy UN political affairs chief, told Friday’s Security Council meeting that around 30,000 people participated in and around the March at various locations in Gaza.
Soon after the demonstrations started, the UN report said, “The situation turned deadly in several spots.”
“Some of the casualties were reportedly the result of live ammunition used by Israeli security forces during the March. Other casualties followed armed clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, including the shelling of a Hamas observation point,” the United Nations said.
“Reports indicate that most of the demonstrators stayed well away from the border fence and were not violent,” the United Nations reported Zerihoun as saying.
“However, there are also reports that some protesters engaged in stone-throwing and violent behavior; some reportedly carrying weapons,” Zerihoun said.
He reportedly told the Security Council that Israeli security forces said that militants tried to get through the fence in attempt to plant explosives.
In a briefing Saturday, IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said there had been three attempts at throwing projectiles, including live fire and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers across the fence.
However, there appears to be a disparity in the number of Palestinians injured by live bullets. Manelis said only “a few scores were hit by live ammunition,” while the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said 758 people were injured.
Manelis said the protests were organized by Hamas, the militant political group that controls Gaza, adding that if these continue IDF will “hit targets deep inside Gaza.”
Manelis said that most killed in Gaza were known as “terror activists,” known to Israel by name and affiliation. He did not elaborate further regarding identities of those killed.
Confrontations further escalated late Friday. Israeli fighter jets targeted three Hamas sites after an IDF position was shot at in northern Gaza, according to an IDF statement. Tank fire also targeted the three sites following an exchange of fire.
