The number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli forces on the Gaza Strip border has increased to 61.
The death toll rose to 61 overnight after an eight-month-old baby died from tear gas that her family said she inhaled at a protest camp on Monday. In Gaza City, hundreds marched in the funeral of eight-month-old Leila al-Ghandour, whose body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag.
Mass protests erupted in Gaza in light of the Nakba and the opening of the US embassy opened in Jerusalem on Monday. Palestinian Health Ministry said earlier that 59 Palestinians had been killed and over 2,700 injured by the Israeli forces.
Since March 30, Palestinians have been holding mass rallies near the Gaza Strip border, known as the Great March of Return.
More than 2 million people are crammed into the narrow Gaza Strip, more than two thirds of them refugees who fled or were expelled from their homes in the territories taken over by Israel during the 1948 war. Palestinians refer to this exile at the Nakba, or "Catastrophe", and commemorate it with protests on May 15 of each year.
They and their descendants want to return to their lands in what is currently Israel. A 1948 UN resolution supporting the right of return has never been implemented.
This year, the occasion was especially sad for the world, coming a day after the U.S. opened its new embassy to Israel in Jerusalem and 61 Palestinians were killed in Gaza during protests.
Palestinians were gathering Tuesday for fresh protests along the Gaza border, a day after Israeli forces killed dozens there.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) called the strike across the West Bank and Gaza regions in response to the deaths of demonstrators.
