Gaza Groups Cancel Border Protests amid Health Crisis

Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip have cancelled mass protests for next week along the border with Israel due to concern over the spread of coronavirus. The Hamas-directed rallies, slated for March 30, would have marked the second anniversary of the so-called Great March of Return. For 18 months beginning in the spring of 2018, Gazans demonstrated nearly every Friday along the frontier, regularly clashing with Israeli security forces. However, the protests subsided amid reported negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a potential long-term cease-fire agreement. Officials in Gaza have confirmed at least nine local cases of COVID-19 – the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus – raising fears of a potentially devastating outbreak in the blockaded Palestinian exclave, one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has confirmed over 100 diagnoses in the West Bank.