Israel minister threatens Palestinian lawmaker over Gaza solidarity protest

Israel's defence minister has said a Palestinian lawmaker should be in prison after he tried to visit people injured during protests against Israeli massacres in Gaza.

Avigdor Liberman took to Twitter on Sunday to attack Knesset member Ayman Odeh for confronting Israeli police outside a Haifa hospital, where injured protesters were being treated.

"Every day that passes and Odeh and his partners are going around freely cursing police officers is a failure of the law enforcement system," Lieberman said.

"These people belong in prison rather than the Knesset," he added.

Hundreds of Palestinian Israelis demonstrated on Saturday evening in Haifa in solidarity with Gaza, where at least 62 Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops last Monday,

Police arrested 21 peaceful protesters and injured several, who were hospitalised.

Odeh responded to Liberman in a sarcastic posting on Twitter.

"It's too bad he didn't tweet that I would be jailed within 48 hours. Then I would know there is nothing to worry about," Odeh said, referring to a previous unfulfilled threat from the minister to kill the leader of Hamas within 48 hours.

Odeh confronted police as he attempted to visit Jafar Farah, the director of the Mossawa human rights organisation.

Witnesses told The New Arab that Israeli police broke Farah's leg during the Haifa protest, as the activist tried to stop police from attacking his son, who was arrested.

Protesters had shouted "down with the occupation, stop fascism".

They waved four large letters in bright red, making up the word "Gaza" and chanted slogans including "Jews and Arabs, we are not enemies".

Since 30 March, Gazans have been marching to demand the right to return to their homes in territory seized by Israel in the 1948 war surrounding the creation of the Jewish state.

Israeli troops have shot dead a total of 119 Palestinians on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. No Israelis have been killed during the protests.

On Friday, the UN Human Rights Council voted to send a team of international war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings.