"Some people say we cannot perform men's duties, while others are concerned that we will get hurt, but some encouraged us to be brave".
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Aya Abeid, a seemingly fearless 18-year-old Palestinian girl, revealed that despite being injured while participating in the Great Return March on the fourth Friday on March 20, 2018, she had returned on the following Friday.

"Two weeks ago, my thigh was injured while rolling some tires. Hopefully, I would come back this Friday and do what I usually do. My catapult is ready," she informed Reuters.

Abeid has managed to raise the Palestinian flag twice on a barbed wire fence separating Gaza from the annexed areas. In fact, not many people dare to approach the areas, especially after more than 40 Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli occupation forces.

"Some people say we cannot perform men`s duties, while others are concerned that we will get hurt, but some encouraged us to be brave," Abeid excitedly stated.

Palestinian women have always been part of the struggle for gaining independence and their homeland from the Israeli colonialists, who have been invading Palestine since 1948.

Baeid is not the only woman participating in the protest called the Great Return March. In a tent in Khan Younis, another woman named Taheyah Qdeih filled some bottles with water and distributed them among the activists staying in tents along the border area.

The 49-year-old woman, who had a home in Jaffa, located not far from Tel Aviv, vowed to continue what she did until the event concludes on May 15, 2018.

"When I was young, I used to throw stones at Israeli soldiers. I came from Jaffa, and I still hope to return. Am I crazy? No!" she noted firmly.

Meanwhile, another 48-year-old Palestinian woman named Jehad Abu Muhsen carried 15 tyres that she had collected from some car workshops on a carriage.

"I do it three to four days in a week. This is what I can do to help," she told Reuters.

In addition to using mirrors to blind Israeli snipers, who hide behind a barrier between Gaza and the annexed area, Palestinians burn tires to block the view of Israeli soldiers.

Meanwhile, Sharouq Abu Musameh, a nursing student, along with 15 of her friends, decided to become medics to treat victims shot by live bullets and exposed to tear gas bombs containing poison that could paralyze the nerves.

"I want to contribute to the Great Return March," Musameh remarked in a white uniform covered with blood stains.

Youths

The Great Return March has been ongoing for six weeks since being initiated on Friday, March 30, 2018, in the border areas of the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories of Israel stretching some 65 kilometers.

The act to defend the Palestinian homeland, organized every Friday, always has the participation of 10 thousand Palestinians without military weapons unlike those owned by Zionist soldiers.

However, the spirit of defending the country has encouraged women and youths as well as children to be part of the march.

Azzam Aweida, 15, will be remembered as a Palestinian youth fighter, who had died on Apr 28 after being shot a day earlier by Israeli troops in the protest area.

Earlier, Atallah Fayoumi, a 17-year-old teenager from the eastern part of Gaza City, lost a leg after being shot by Israeli snipers on Apr 13, or the third Friday of the march.

"I did not know after three days that my leg would be amputated," Fayoumi stated.

He is not the only case of a Palestinian with an amputated leg during the last four weeks of the march, Operational Head of the European Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip Sami Abu Sneima remarked.

Several people, who were shot with live ammunition, had to be amputated, Sneima noted.

Another 11-year-old boy named Abul Rahman Noufal was also shot on his left foot and suffered severe bleeding and crushed bone. His mother said Noufal was shot on the leg only because he stood near the border area and watched the march.

The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip noted that 44 Palestinians had died and more than six thousand people had been wounded in the protest since Mar 30. Most of the dead were shot by explosive ammunition called butterfly bullets that could rip through flesh and damage bones.

Nevertheless, the Great Return March will be held until May 15, 2018, that is commemorated by Palestinians as Nakba Day, or Disaster Day, since it marks the day when Israel celebrated the founding of the Jewish state.

Establishment of the colonial state was followed by expelling two-thirds of the Palestinians and committing ethnic cleansing in 418 villages in Palestine in 1948.

Reporter: Libertina W. Ambari
Editor: Bambang Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018