The ‘Revolutionary Youth’ fighting on Gaza’s border fence
Palestinians demonstrate along the Israel-Gaza border in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prisons, 15 September 2023
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss:
This time of year usually sees a seasonal rise in political tensions in Palestine. The Jewish holidays are always connected with settlers storming the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and attacking Palestinian worshipers and civilians, and there is always a response from Gaza to these attacks. This time, however, it isn’t Gaza’s resistance factions who are responding, but ordinary people.
Hundreds of people gathered in various spots along Gaza’s fence with Israel during the past week and a half in a show of popular mobilization reminiscent of the Great March of Return in 2019. The similarities aren’t in the size or nature of the protests either, but in the locations where the protests are being held and the participants themselves. Many familiar faces have appeared, but it seems that some of them are now operating under a name.
That name appears as a new voice calling for the protests — al-Shabab al-Tha’er, or “the Revolutionary Youth.”
It started last Wednesday, when dozens of Palestinians responded to a call signed by “the Revolutionary Youth” urging Palestinians to support Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The protesters made their way to the Israeli fence and got within close proximity when a large explosion was heard. Six Palestinians were reported dead by the Gaza Health Ministry, and another 25 people were injured.
The circumstances of the explosion remain unclear, and witnesses tell two different accounts of the incident. The first is that the Israeli forces planted an explosive device on the fence to ambush the youth and kill them. The other story holds that the explosion happened when protesters tried throwing an explosive device toward the Israeli side.
The six martyrs were buried amid massive throngs of mourners as their funeral processions filled streets across the strip on Thursday, September 14. Their deaths have not daunted other protestors from joining, however — instead, they have served as a galvanizing force for people to make their way to the border. In the following days, the Revolutionary Youth continued to put out calls for more protests at the border, and people started to come out in greater numbers.