Sixteen Palestinian protesters were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces along the Gaza border as residents marked Land Day, a Health Ministry spokesman said here.
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Organizers of the protest said Palestinians will make sure violence doesn’t escalate on their part.
The day quickly turned into the bloodiest day in Gaza since the 2014 war as Palestinian protesters and Israeli military clashed along the fence.
Manelis said soldiers knew who they were shooting at and how many people were hit by live fire. United Nations deputy political affairs chief Taye-Brook Zerihoun told the Council: “Israel must uphold its responsibilities under worldwide human rights and humanitarian law”.
Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, appearing at the tent camps Friday, presented the march as a rebuke to the USA peace effort, and said it marks the beginning of the Palestinian return to all of what is now Israel.
“The large number of martyrs and people wounded in peaceful popular demonstrations shows that the global community must intervene to provide protection to our Palestinian people”, he said.
The latest Egyptian-led reconciliation efforts collapsed earlier this month, when a bomb targeted but missed Abbas’ prime minister and intelligence chief during a visit to Gaza.
The large turnout of marchers in the unsafe border zone also seemed to signal desperation among Gaza residents.
The United Nations Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss the situation in Gaza at the request of Kuwait, diplomats told Reuters.
The ministry says at least 550 Palestinians have been injured by tear gas, live rounds and rubber-coated steel pellets fired by Israeli forces.
But the “March of Return” protest that began on Friday is on a larger scale and meant to involve families with women and children camping in tent cities near the border for weeks. Hamas said five of its militants had been killed.
The Israeli military said the protesters threw firebombs and rocks at soldiers, rolled burning tires at them, sought to breach or damage the border fence, and in one incident opened fire.
In an interview published by Maariv newspaper, chief of staff of Israeli army, Gadi Eisenkot, confirmed that soldiers were ordered to fire “anyone who damages security infrastructure or if re is a risky threat”.
The IDF warned on Saturday that if the violence along the Gaza border continues, Israel will expand its response and target those responsible for it.
In the video released on Saturday, three young men are running in an open field near the border fence, while a group of Palestinians yell “Allah Akhbar”. It did not provide a breakdown.
Hamas is an Islamist terror group that seeks to destroy Israel.
The EU’s diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini on Saturday called for an independent investigation into the use of live ammunition by Israel’s military following clashes in Gaza that left 16 Palestinians dead. He added that Hamas would be held responsible for the violence. It called in the army as opposed to the police and Border Police, citing Land Day demonstrations within Israel and fears of attacks in Jerusalem.
For its part, Israel had been launching warning messages all week – including launch of pamphlets on strip – ensuring that army did not allow anyone to approach less than 300 metres from border.
“If this continues we will not have no choice but to respond inside the Gaza Strip”, said Israeli military spokesman Brigadier-General Ronen Manelis.
Footage captured by other Palestinian protesters showed the moments of the fierce attack by the Israeli soldiers.
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Just hours before the demonstrations began, an Israeli tank shell killed a Gaza farmer who had been gathering crops and wounded another in a southern Gaza village.
