Scores dead, but millions more have nothing to lose

Hind Khoudary, a writer for Middle East Eye in Gaza, has filed her witness account of yesterday's carnage on the Gaza frontier, where scores of Palestinian protesters were killed by Israeli soldiers. A list of those shot dead by Israeli forces on Monday can be found here.

The first that we knew of the massacre to come was a rush of protesters, their faces blackened from the tyres many had set alight, rushing away from the security fence and screaming for help.

At about 3pm on Monday, Palestinians had got close to the fence and the Israelis let rip - the crack of M16s and sniper rifles rang out and bodies began to drop along the perimeter.

Blood-soaked stretchers streamed from the protest area as the injured were moved from the kill zone - many suffering bullet wounds but also some missing limbs.

A number of those injured were too near the Israeli fence and were beyond the help of ambulances. Instead, Palestinians rushed to their aid on horseback, in carts and on motorbikes. Others were simply carried on the backs of their comrades, all under withering fire.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, 59 people, including a paramedic and a baby, were killed on Monday. 2,410 were wounded. Of those, 79 suffered neck and head injuries, 161 were injured in the upper part of the body, 62 were injured in the chest and back, 52 in the stomach and 1,055 were injured in the lower extremities.

This mid-afternoon massacre came after a morning of peaceful but angry protest - Palestinian national songs were sung by the tens of thousands along the demonstration line, kites flew in the sky, the elderly walking with crutches towards the fence alongside children holding their parents' hands.

'This is the 1948 lands, it was occupied by the Israelis, we were driven from our homeland, that is why we are here demanding the right of return'

- Palestinian father talking to his children

There was anger over the celebration in Jerusalem of the US relocating its embassy, a move symbolising America's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

A hint of the carnage to come could be gleaned from the boys collecting tyres to burn in order to create a thick, acrid smokescreen and block the views of Israeli snipers, who had killed more than 40 people in five weeks of protest over the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their ancestral homelands.

The toll from Monday's carnage topped those five weeks.

"This is the 1948 lands, it was occupied by the Israelis, we were driven from our homeland, that is why we are here demanding the right of return," said a father talking to his children, while pointing to what is now Israel.

Added to this is the situation in Gaza - 11 years of Israeli blockade, poverty, war and conditions for 1.4 million residents that have been described as the biggest open prison in the world.

That can in part explain why Palestinian youth have nothing to lose, and are prepared to put their lives on the line knowing that they can be shot and killed at any minute.