The Jerusalem Post reports that fifty of the Palestinians killed in the past days on the border region between the Gaza Strip and Israel were Hamas members, Hamas Politburo member Salah Bardaweil said on Wednesday.
The newspaper report states that the IDF described the protests on Monday as “a violent riot,” asserting that participants tried to enter Israel, threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at security personnel and placed a bomb near the border fence.
However, international and local rights groups accused Israel of using “excessive force” against “unarmed protesters.”
At least 61 Palestinians were killed on Monday, according to Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
“The number I am telling you is official. Fifty martyrs from Hamas were martyred in this most recent battle,” he told Baladna, a Gaza-based TV station.
Bardaweil did not specify what role the people who he said were Hamas members had in the organisation or whether any of them belonged to its armed wing, the Izzadin Kassam Brigades.
