2018–2019 Gaza border protests

The 2018–2019 Gaza border protests, also known as the Great March of Return (Arabic: مسیرة العودة الكبرى, romanized: Masīra al-ʿawda al-kubrā), were a series of demonstrations held each Friday in the Gaza Strip near the Gaza-Israel border from 30 March 2018 until 27 December 2019, in which Israeli forces killed a total of 223 Palestinians. The demonstrators demanded that the Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return to lands they were displaced from in what is now Israel. They protested against Israel's land, air and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip and the 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, the rulers of the Gaza Strip, 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 2018 (Land Day) to 15 May (Nakba Day) but the demonstrations continued for almost 18 months until Hamas announced on 27 December 2019 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 attended activities during the week.

Most of the demonstrators demonstrated peacefully far from the border fence. Peter Cammack, a fellow with the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argued that the march indicated a new trend in Palestinian society and Hamas, with a shift away from violence towards non-violent forms of protest. Nevertheless, groups consisting mainly of young men approached the fence and committed acts of violence directed towards the Israeli side. Israeli officials said the demonstrations were used by Hamas as cover for launching attacks against Israel.

At least 189 Palestinians were killed between 30 March and 31 December 2018.^: 6 An independent United Nations commission set the number of known militants killed at 29 out of the 189. Other sources claim a higher figure, of at least 40. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and live ammunition. According to Robert Mardini, head of Middle East for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), more than 13,000 Palestinians were wounded as of 19 June 2018. The majority were wounded severely, with some 1,400 struck by three to five bullets. No Israelis were physically harmed from 30 March to 12 May, until one Israeli soldier was reported as slightly wounded on 14 May, the day the protests peaked. The same day, 59 or 60 Palestinians were shot dead at twelve clash points along the border fence. Hamas claimed 50 of them as its militants, and Islamic Jihad claimed 3 of the 62 killed as members of its military wing. Some 35,000 Palestinians protested that day, with thousands approaching the fence.

Israel's use of deadly force was condemned on 13 June 2018 in a United Nations General Assembly resolution. Condemnations also came from human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, and Amnesty International, and by United Nations officials. Kuwait proposed two United Nations Security Council statements, both blocked by the United States, which called for investigations into Israel's killing of Palestinian protesters. The Israeli government praised Israeli troops for protecting the border fence. Media coverage of the demonstrations, and what has been termed the "PR battle", has been the object of analysis and controversy. In late February 2019, a United Nations Human Rights Council's independent commission found that of the 489 cases of Palestinian deaths or injuries analyzed, only two were possibly justified as responses to danger by Israeli security forces. The commission deemed the rest of the cases illegal, and concluded with a recommendation calling on Israel to examine whether war crimes or crimes against humanity had been committed, and if so, to bring those responsible to trial.