Israel's high-tech military is coming under scathing international criticism for its use of live fire that killed scores of Palestinian protesters across a border — even if the protesting Gazans were burning tires, launching fiery kites into Israeli farms and in some cases trying to rip apart a border fence.
Bodies of Palestinians killed during a protest on a border with Israel lay in the morgue in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)
The Israeli army has staunchly defended its actions. It points to the violent history of Gaza's Hamas rulers, says there have been bombing and shooting attacks against its forces and fears a mass border breach. It also says that in the open terrain of the Gaza border, with troops easily exposed, its military options are limited.
But with the death toll rising, and hundreds of unarmed people among the casualties, the criticism is mounting.
Here is a closer look at the debate over Israel's use of live fire:
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WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
The border protests are aimed largely at breaking a decade-old blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt against Hamas. The blockade, which Israel says is needed to keep Hamas from arming, has decimated Gaza's economy.
Since the Hamas-led protests began on March 30, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,500 wounded by live fire, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
On Monday alone, 59 people were killed and over 1,200 wounded — making it by far the bloodiest day of cross-border violence since a 2014 war between Hamas and Israel.
The vast majority of the casualties have been unarmed protesters, according to Palestinian officials.
A man reacts as bodies of Palestinians killed during a protest on the border with Israel lay in the morgue in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)
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ANGRY REACTIONS
Monday's bloodshed triggered widespread criticism from around the world, with many countries, including European allies like Germany and Belgium, accusing Israel of using disproportionate force and calling for independent investigations.
The U.N. Security Council held a special session that began with a moment of silence for the Palestinians who were killed. In Geneva, the U.N. human rights office said Israel has repeatedly violated international norms by using deadly live fire to repel protesters.
Office spokesman Rupert Colville said rules under international law "have been ignored again and again" and that lethal force should only be a "last resort."
Bodies of Palestinians killed during a protest on the border with Israel lay in a morgue in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)
"It seems anyone is liable to be shot dead or injured: women, children, press personnel, first responders, bystanders," he said.
In Israel, six human rights groups have asked the Supreme Court to declare as unlawful any regulations that allow soldiers to open fire at unarmed civilians.
Hassan Jabareen, general director of Adalah, one of those groups, said soldiers are supposed to use lethal force only if their lives are in immediate danger. He said the large number of people shot far from the border or struck in their upper bodies has raised additional questions about military policies.
"They are shooting in an arbitrary way for two reasons, to punish and to deter," he said.
Israeli firefighters extinguish tractor tires in a farmland set on fire by a kite with attached burning cloth launched from Gaza on the Israeli side of the border, Tuesday, May 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
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ISRAEL'S RESPONSE
Israel says it uses live fire only as a last resort. It says it begins with verbal warnings and leaflets dropped from the sky that urge people to stay away from the border, and then resorts to "non-lethal" tactics such as tear gas to disperse the crowds.
The military says snipers are permitted to open fire only when all other means have failed. Snipers are supposed to aim at protesters' legs and can shoot only with approval from a commander.
Military officials say that tear gas is often ineffective in the windy conditions. It says it needs to keep its soldiers far from the crowds, and that other non-lethal means, such as rubber-coated bullets, are ineffective from a long distance.
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THE HAMAS FACTOR
The Israeli military says the protests are taking place in the context of a long-running armed conflict with Hamas, an Islamic militant group that has fought three wars with Israel over the past decade and killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks.
It says open-fire regulations are subject to the rules of armed conflict, which provide greater leeway for the use of lethal force.
Israel says the protests are not peaceful, and that Hamas militants are using the crowds as cover to carry out attacks.
Protesters have stormed the border fence, set it on fire with burning tires and ripped apart pieces of the structure with wire cutters. They have hurled firebombs and stones toward soldiers and sent flaming kites over the border to set Israeli agricultural fields on fire. One Israeli soldier has been wounded.
The army on Tuesday released a video that appeared to show protesters detonating several explosions near the border. It also said its forces had killed a squad of Hamas gunmen who opened fire at troops.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said 14 of those killed Monday were actively involved in carrying out attacks.
Israel's greatest fear is that Hamas will stage a mass breach of the fence and enter nearby Israeli communities to kidnap or kill Israelis.
Such concerns are not unfounded. In 2006, Hamas-linked militants tunneled into Israel and captured a soldier, holding him for five years until he was freed in a prisoner swap.
Hamas also infiltrated into Israel through tunnels during the 2014 war, killing at least six Israeli soldiers, according to Israel's Foreign Ministry. Since the war, Israel has uncovered and destroyed several additional tunnels.
Hamas leader Yehiyeh Sinwar, who was released in the 2011 prisoner swap, has hinted that a border breach is possible.
"We have no choice," Conricus said. "There's no way we have the leniency or the flexibility to allow rioters to tear down the fence, for terrorists to come through following those rioters and get into Israel and terrorize Israeli civilians."
Protesters chanted anti-war messages and waved Palestinian flags during the University of Michigan's commencement Saturday, as student demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war collided with the annual pomp-and-circumstance of graduation season at American universities.
The protest happened at the beginning of the event at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. About 75 people, many wearing traditional Arabic keffiyeh along with their graduation caps, marched up the main aisle toward the graduation stage.
They chanted “Regents, regents, you can’t hide! You are funding genocide!” while holding signs, including one that read: “No universities left in Gaza.”
Overhead, planes flew competing messages. One read: "Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!” The other read: “We stand with Israel. Jewish lives matter.”
Officials said no one was arrested, and the protest didn’t seriously interrupt the nearly two-hour event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people, some of them waving Israeli flags.
State police prevented the demonstrators from reaching the stage and university spokesperson Colleen Mastony said public safety personnel escorted the protesters to the rear of the stadium, where they remained through the conclusion of the event.
“Peaceful protests like this have taken place at U-M commencement ceremonies for decades,” she added.
U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro paused a few times during his remarks, saying at one point, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you can please draw your attention back to the podium."
Before he administered an oath to graduates in the armed forces, Del Toro said they would “protect the freedoms that we so cherish,” including the “right to protest peacefully.”
The university has allowed protesters to set up an encampment on campus but police assisted in breaking up a large gathering at a graduation-related event Friday night, and one person was arrested.
Michigan was among the schools bracing for protests during its commencement ceremonies this weekend, including Indiana University, Ohio State University and Northeastern University in Boston. Many more are slated in the coming weeks.
At Indiana University, protesters were urging supporters to wear their keffiyehs and walk out during remarks by President Pamela Whitten on Saturday evening. The campus in Bloomington, Indiana, has designated a protest zone outside Memorial Stadium, where the ceremony is set to take place.
Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in recent weeks in a student movement unlike any other this century. Some schools have reached agreements with the protesters to end the demonstrations and reduce the possibility of disrupting final exams and commencements.
Many encampments have been dismantled and protesters arrested in police crackdowns.
The Associated Press has recorded at least 61 incidents since April 18 where arrests were made at campus protests across the U.S. More than 2,400 people have been arrested on 47 college and university campuses. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.
At Princeton, in New Jersey, 18 students launched a hunger strike in an effort to push the university to divest from companies tied to Israel.
Senior David Chmielewski, a hunger striker, said in an email Saturday that the latest protest started Friday morning with participants consuming water only.
He said the hunger strike will continue until university administrators meet with students about their demands, which include amnesty from criminal and disciplinary charges for protesters.
Other demonstrators are participating in “solidarity fasts” lasting 24 hours, he said.
Princeton students set up a protest encampment and some held a sit-in at an administrative building this week, leading to about 15 arrests.
Students at other colleges, including Brown and Yale, launched similar hunger strikes earlier this year before the more recent wave of protest encampments.
In other developments Saturday, police broke up a demonstration at the University of Virginia. Campus police called it an “unlawful assembly” in a post on the social platform X.
Footage from WVAW-TV showed police wearing tactical gear removing protesters from an encampment on the Charlottesville campus. Authorities have not said how many people were arrested.
Meanwhile near Boston, students at Tufts University peacefully took down their protest encampment without police intervention Friday night.
Officials with the school in Medford, Massachusetts, said they were pleased with the development, which wasn’t the result of any agreement with protesters. Protest organizers said in a statement that they were “deeply angered and disappointed” that negotiations with the university had failed.
The protests stem from the Israel-Hamas conflict that started on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of Gaza’s inhabitants.
Marcelo reported from New York. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Nick Perry in Boston; and Adrian Sainz in Memphis contributed to this story.
Police use a microphone as a pro-Palestinian demonstrator listens on the grounds of the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Va., where tents were set up, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Cal Cary/The Daily Progress via AP)
Police form a line where pro-Palestinian protesters set up tents on the grounds of the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Cal Cary/The Daily Progress via AP)
A pro-Palestinian supporter holds a sign reading "State Police=KKK" on the grounds of the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Va., where they set up tents, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Cal Cary/The Daily Progress via AP)
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator wears goggles and a mask as police with riot shields and protesters clash on the grounds of the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Va., where tents are set up, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Cal Cary/The Daily Progress via AP)
Police use a microphone as a pro-Palestinian protester listens on the grounds of the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Va., where tents were set up, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Cal Cary/The Daily Progress via AP)
Police take down tents and detain protesters at the University of Virginia on Saturday, May 4, 2024 in Charlottesville, Va. (WVAW via AP)
Police take down tents and detain protesters from at the University of Virginia on Saturday, May 4, 2024 in Charlottesville, Va. (WVAW via AP)
Police detain protesters as they take down tents at the University of Virginia on Saturday, May 4, 2024 in Charlottesville, Va. (WVAW via AP)
Graduates sporting Israeli flags and pins shout at Pro-Palestinian protesters as they demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Katy Kildee/Detroit News via AP)
Rawan Antar, 21, center, chants in support of Palestinians during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Katy Kildee/Detroit News via AP)
Graduates sporting Israeli flags and pins shout at Pro-Palestinian protesters as they demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Katy Kildee/Detroit News via AP)
Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024.( Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)
Graduate Ari Belchinsky wears pro-Israel pins during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)
Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024.( Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)
A graduate waits for the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony to begin at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)
A plane bearing a banner that reads ""We stand with Israel jewishlivesmatter.us" flies overhead before the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)
Graduates sporting Israeli flags and pins shout at Pro-Palestinian protesters as they demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024.( Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)
Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate during the University of Michigan's Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, May 4, 2024.( Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)
