One teen buried amid "catastrophe" unrest

The Italian activists who arrived in Gaza to share their support and solidarity with the residents. Every year, Palestinians recall the Nakba or catastrophe with officials making emotional speeches and organising cultural activities with the hope of improved living conditions in the coming year. With the region witnessing the uprising, this year the marking of "Nakba" will be different. Palestinians are preparing to march to the Israeli border and some youth said "it's time to return".
Palestinians across occupied east Jerusalem staged protests in the runup to today's anniversary of the 1948 creation of Israel, an event known to Arabs as the "nakba" or "catastrophe''.
Young Palestinians took the idea from the Arab revolutions and the advantage of the communication technology to gather and agree on May 15 as the date of "Nakba" and the day to challenge the Israelis by protesting at the checkpoints and the borders of Israel.
Activists behind a website called "The Third Intifada," have also called for a new uprising which would see thousands of Palestinians march towards Israeli checkpoints, and refugees towards homes from which they fled or were forced out of when Israel was first created in 1948.
Palestinian refugees are also expected to stage rallies and demonstrations in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria as well as marching to the checkpoints and borders with the Israeli state.
Mohammad Mattar, an active member during the movement taking place on May 15, said: "We have learned from the other revolutions of the Arab world and for the very first time the Palestinians are united and will show the whole world that they never forget and will not leave their right of return."
On Wednesday, the Jewish state announced that its army forces were preparing for possible confrontations during the Palestinian demonstrations on the day.
Israel took these actions seriously and began increasing their forces on their borders especially on Lebanon, Egypt and the Gaza strip. More than 760,000 Palestinians — estimated today to number 4.8 million with their descendants — were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict surrounding Israel's creation.
A month ago, Gaza strip lost the Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni who had been killed by extremists. This event didn't prevent other Italians and peace activists from coming to Gaza.
On Thursday, a delegation of 80 Italian peace activists arrived in the Gaza strip to share their support and solidarity with the people of Gaza and to prove that Arrigoni's message will be continued.
Most of these supporters knew Arrigoni personally and were friends with him but all of them believed in his thoughts and ideas in supporting the Palestinians against the Israeli occupation and solidarity with them.
Alfonso Babritori, a friend of Arrigoni said he met Arrigoni in 2009 when they tried to enter the Gaza Strip. He said they were beaten by security forces under the Mubarak regime.
The delegation is scheduled to visit the coastal enclave for several days to see what Arrigoni used to do to support the Palestinians and what made him love this place.
Arrigoni, 36, was a long-time member of the International Solidarity Movement and had been living and working in the Gaza Strip for much of the past three years.
He wrote dozens of reports and featured stories documenting the Israeli violations against the residents in Gaza. During his presence in Gaza, Arrigoni was also granted Palestinian citizenship which was handed to him by Prime Minister of the Hamas-led government, Esmail Haniya. Mohammad Al Zaeem a member in the international solidarity movement and a colleague of Arrigoni said: everybody loved Vittorio he was an active volunteer and big-hearted man, he used to help everybody and he was a symbol of humanity. We lost a great man when he died."
In the Ras El-Amud around 2,000 mourners laid the body of a Palestinian teen killed in Jerusalem clashes to rest yesterday while police, fearing more unrest, kept a discreet watch but did not intervene.
Milad Said Ayyash was fatally wounded on Friday as Palestinians across annexed east Jerusalem staged protests in the runup to today's anniversary of the 1948 creation of Israel .
Witnesses and police said that the crowd marched from Ayyash's home in the Ras El-Amud neighborhood past a nearby Jewish settlement where Israeli security forces fired tear gas at stone-throwing youngsters in the crowd.


There were no reports of injuries or arrests. Carrying Palestinian flags and the banner of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement, the mourners, some of them masked, chanted "Allah Akbar" (God is great) and "With our blood and our soul, we shall sacrifice for the martyr," as they marched to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City.
On arrival at the mosque, some hoisted the Palestinian flag from its roof.
After prayers Ayyash was interred at a Muslim cemetery just outside the city walls.
Police stayed out of sight, witnesses said.
He was buried and it all ended relatively quietly," a police spokeswoman said. "Our intention was to preserve general public order, not to be dragged into something or create a provocation."
In conflicting reports of Ayyash's death his family say he was 16 years old, but police say 17.
A relative said that he was shot in the stomach by a Jewish settler in the flashpoint neighborhood of Silwan, where youngsters hurled stones and petrol bombs at police, and news reports said petrol bombs were also thrown at a Jewish settlement enclave.

A United Nations official said that a planned visit to Silwan by visiting Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos was cancelled "because of the situation."
On Friday, police arrested 34 Palestinian youngsters on suspicion of public order offences, in addition to another 13 rounded up preemptively as potential troublemakers.
Police said that three officers were lightly injured in clashes with protesters who threw stones and petrol bombs and that three people causing disturbances were very slightly hurt" by sponge rounds fired by anti-riot police.
A youth from Silwan was hit in the genitals by rubber bullets fired by security forces on Friday, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
He did not give details on other casualties. Protests in Jerusalem and elsewhere are to culminate on Sunday, when Palestinian organizations have called for mass rallies, including in neighboring Arab countries.
The Egyptian army has blocked access to the Sinai peninsula to prevent a pro-Palestinian march from Cairo to the Gaza Strip that had been planned.
In the Gaza Strip, the ruling Islamist Hamas movement organized a children's protest in the centre of Gaza City, while the Palestine Liberation Organization planned a rally in the territory's Bureij refugee camp.
In Israel, a march was scheduled in Jaffa, a mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhood of Tel Aviv. More than 760,000 Palestinians-estimated today to number 4.7 million with their descendants-fled or were driven out of their homes in the Arab-Israeli war which accompanied the establishment of the Jewish state.
Israel celebrated the 63rd anniversary on Tuesday, in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.
Around 160,000 Palestinians stayed behind and are now known as Arab Israelis. They number about 1.3 million people, or some 20 percent of Israel's population.