As expected, thousands of protesters backed by Hamas burned hundreds of tires, sending plumes of black smoke billowing over the border with Israel.  The Gaza Health Ministry reports seven Palestinian protesters died, at least one of them a member of a terror group, as the rioters tried for a second week to cross into Israel. They also claim several hundred were injured, but those numbers could not be confirmed.

The crowd appeared to be “significantly smaller,” according to Israeli Defense Forces estimates, than the 30,000 who took part last Friday in “March of Return” protests to take back Arab villages lost to Israel in the 1948 war. Hundreds of Hamas supporters gathered around their shadowy leader Yehiyeh Sinwar at the border and chanted, “We are going to Jerusalem, millions of martyrs.” In a defiant public threat, Sinwar vowed to “breach the borders.” READ MORE