LATEST: Gaza sees more protests and violence on Nakba Day, after 62 killed

Jerusalem resident Nihaya al-Qawasmi told Middle East Eye that the "international community has no moral compass or integrity to stand up to US hubris and arrogance."

Qawasmi took Isreal's interior ministry to court after it issued an order to revoke her residency and deport her from the city of Jerusalem. She is still waiting for the final rule.

"Fences around Gaza Strip were turned into killing fields and no one dares to stand up to the Zionists and put an end to their genocide against my people. We're in 2018 and the world is being dragged to the Middle Ages by two men with delusions of grandeur," Qawasmi said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said that at least 53 Palestinians were injured by Israeli security forces in protests near the Israeli settlement of Beit El, in the occupied West Bank. 

Here's a breakdown of the causes of injuries in Beit El:  

• 23 Palestinians injured from gas inhalation.
• 30 Palestinians injured from rubber-coated bullets.

(Source: Palestinian Red Crescent) 

Gaza's health ministry reported that 2,771 Palestinians wounded in the buffer zone with Israel. Of these 1359 were hit by live fire and at least 980 injured through inhaling tear gas.

Among the injured include 225 minors. 

(Source: Gaza health ministry) 

The Israeli ambassador to Turkey, Eitan Naeh, was summoned to Turkey's foreign ministry in Ankara and asked to leave because of the deaths in Gaza. 

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment when asked about the incident. 

While speaking on Belgian radio station La Première, the Israeli ambassador to Belgium Simona Frankel called all Palestinians killed in Gaza “terrorists”.

“I regret the loss of life of any human being who has died, regardless of their nationality, even though they are terrorists, 55 terrorists who tried to cross the fence to enter Israeli territory,” she said.

La Première journalist Thomas Gadisseux interrupted Frankel: “The 55 Palestinians killed yesterday by the Israeli army are terrorists?”

“All of them,” Frankel replied.

“There were eight children [killed], including a baby,” the Belgian journalist noted. Monday's death toll currently stands at 60, according to the Gaza health ministry.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that Guatemala will open its embassy in Jerusalem tomorrow as Palestinians continue to protest the US embassy move. 

LONDON - Boris Johnson was speaking after Labour's shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry raised an urgent question in parliament over the deaths in Gaza.

She said: "What makes yesterday's events all the worse is that they didn't come as a result of some accidental over-reaction to one day's protest, but as the result of a culmination of six weeks, an apparently calculated and deliberate policy to kill and main unarmed protesters, who posed no threat to the forces on the Gaza border.

"Many of them shot in the back. Many of them shot hundreds of metres from the border, and many of them children.

"And if we are in any doubt about the lethal intent of the Israeli snipers working on the border, I'm afraid we only need to look at the wounds suffered by their victims.

"On hunting websites in America, they regularly debate the merits of 7.6 mm bullets versus the 5.5 mm bullets. The latter, they say, is effective when you want to wound multiple internal organs, while the former is preferred by some because, and I quote, 'it is designed to mushroom and fragment, to do maximum internal damage to the animal'.

"And it was this ammunition, it is alleged, that was used in Gaza yesterday against men, women and children."

LONDON - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has told parliament that “peaceful protests” in Gaza are “being exploited by extremists”.

He said: “I urge Israel to show restraint in the use of live fire and I take this opportunity to repeat the UK's commitment to a two-state solution with Jerusalem as the shared capital."

His comments came as Theresa May’s spokesman said that ministers discussed the situation in Gaza at the weekly meeting of the Cabinet and that the Prime Minister urged both sides to "show restraint and refrain from any further violence".

In a statement, the Prime Minister's spokesman said: "Palestinians have the right to protest but these protests must be peaceful. We are concerned that extremist elements may be seeking to hijack peaceful protests to further their own objectives.”

"Israel has the right to defend its borders and we do not question that. However the use of live fire is deeply troubling and has led to significant loss of life. We urge Israel to show greater restraint."

LONDON - Joan Ryan, a backbench Labour MP and chair of Labour Friends of Israel, has attacked militant group Hamas for stoking violence in Gaza.

She told MPs: "The death toll on the Gaza border yesterday was truly terrible and the violence must stop, but Hamas must end its cynical exploitation of the peace process, and the IDF must show restraint and do all they can to minimize civilian casualties".

He comments came during an emergency debate on the issue in the UK parliament. 

Labour MP Wes Streeting told the debate: "Defending the border is not a licence to kill".

BETHLEHEM, Occupied West Bank - MEE correspondent Yumna Patel did a live stream of the events earlier this afternoon, during which Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas and sound bombs towards demonstrators. 

Demonstrators set tyres on fire to create a smoke barrier between the crowd and Israeli soldiers stationed outside of the military base directly adjacent to Bethlehem.

"The best word that can describe the Nakba is a catastrophe," Anas, a protester from Aida refugee camp, told MEE. "We are put in camps, our lands transformed into Israeli towns. People coming from all over the world are living on our lands and we are living in camps.

"We have been under occupation for 70 years, but we want to send the message that we will never, ever agree to compromise on our right of return," Ribal, another demonstrator, told MEE.

LONDON - Fabian Hamilton, Jeremy Corbyn's shadow peace mininster, has told MEE that Labour is "commited to reviewing UK arms sales to Israel". 

Following on from his party leader's calls for action earlier, he said: "The UK should be using its position on the UN Security Council to lead the calls for an independent investigation into the deaths in Gaza yesterday and over the last six weeks. It is vital that any investigation looks closely at whether there was a breach of international law during the protests. The UN Human Rights Council has rightly expressed extreme concern over yesterday’s deaths, in which it must be remembered that several children were reportedly killed.”

“The fact is that any civilian deaths, or deaths of children, are completely unacceptable and should be met with action, not just words.”