Palestinians in Gaza demonstrate against Israeli army along eastern fence

Dozens of young Palestinians in Gaza held a protest along the eastern fence of the coastal enclave Tuesday evening against the Israeli soldiers stationed there in solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank. 

Raising Palestinian flags, the protestors set fire to car tires and threw stones toward the Israeli army, while chanting against Israel's crimes in the West Bank, mainly the cities of Nablus and Jenin. 

The Israeli army fired tear gas canisters at the protestors and demanded that the protesters or the army will open fire on them. 

"We came here to say to our brothers in Nablus, Jenin and all cities in the West Bank that we all are in the same position and we will not leave them alone to confront Israel's crimes," Adli al-Halabi, a protestor, said to The New Arab. 

"We have to set fire on the land under the Israeli soldiers everywhere and all the times (...) we have the right to defend ourselves by all our means," the 19-year-old masked protester said. 

"We are sad as our leaders keep themselves silent towards such crimes against young men," he added. "Someday, we will demonstration against all of them as well as against Israel." 

Fathi al-Gharabli, another protestor, said TNA that "Israel thinks that we will be silent towards its aggression in the West Bank as it eased some restrictions in Gaza, but we came here to say that all the Palestinian people have the same issue and the same enemy."

"There is no doubt that Israel will be ended someday, but we have to support our resistance and we [the younger generation] should show Israel that we will grow over its hate and we will not accept its existence on our lands," he added. 

The demonstrations occurred in response to the Israeli army killing of six Palestinians, including five fighters in the West Bank city of Nablus and one teenager in Ramallah city, Tuesday morning. 

The Israeli army claimed it had carried out a vast operation with police and intelligence officers targeting a site "used by the main operatives of the 'Lion's Den'", describing it as a "headquarters and a workshop for making weapons" of the group.

"The forces detonated the explosive manufacturing site," the army statement added, which did not provide a death toll. "During the activity, multiple armed suspects were hit."

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said that Wadih Al-Houh, a leader of a new coalition of Palestinian fighters dubbed "The Lions' Den", had been among those killed in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Israeli violence has increased in recent months in the northern occupied West Bank, the Palestinian territory illegally occupied since 1967 by Israel, especially in the areas of Nablus and Jenin.

More than 140 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the year, the heaviest toll in the West Bank for nearly seven years, according to the United Nations.

"If Israel continues its aggression, it is natural to find the new generation that does not belong to the Palestinian factions rise up against Israeli arrogance, whether in Gaza or the West Bank," said Ibrahim Abrash, a Gaza-based political expert, to TNA. 

"Such a generation does not care about the laws of resistance with political dimensions but rather wants to express its anger against these crimes, even if they were forced to take revenge on the Israelis by using weapons...This is the real danger that Israel fears," Abrash added.