Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh speaks during a protest east of Gaza City near the border security fence between eastern Gaza and Israel, on April 9, 2018. Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday that the current anti-Israel mass rally will continue until its goals are achieved. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar)
GAZA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday that the current anti-Israel mass rally will continue until its goals are achieved.
Haniyeh made his remarks on Monday afternoon in Gaza City, just a few hundred meters from the border security fence between eastern Gaza and Israel.
"Greetings to the heroes who made the images of popular confrontation as extensions to popular uprisings (Intifadas) that broke out on this blessed land for freedom and return to all the land of Palestine," said Haniyeh.
March 30, the Palestinian Land Day, was the start of a six-week anti-Israel protest, which is expected to peak on May 15, the day after the 70th anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence but marked by the Palestinians as the Nakba Day, or "Day of the Catastrophe."
"We will return to Palestine and our villages and will return to Jerusalem and will bring our people from all areas of refuge and Diaspora to the blessed land," the Hamas chief told the crowd.
Since the beginning of the anti-Israel rally on March 30, about 32 Palestinians, including a journalist and two children, have been killed and 2,850 others injured, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The mass protest, known as the "Great March of Return," demands Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homes occupied by Israel.
Dozens of tents have been pitched in areas 700 meters from the border between Gaza and Israel as part of the rally.
"Tens of thousands of Gazans will be marching toward Palestine, toward their villages and cities," Haniyeh said.
He also slammed the U.S. government for derailing the Palestinian cause.
"All shame to the American administration and all shame to those who collude with it in order to exhaust the cause of Palestine," Haniyeh concluded.
