GAZA, 26 February 2008 — Thousands of Palestinians formed a human chain yesterday morning, stretching 41 kilometers along the border with Israel from north to south, in protest against a crushing Israeli blockade.

The human chain extended from the Salah Al-Deen Gate on the border between Gaza and Egypt in the south until the “Eretz” crossing point in the north of the Strip.

Organizers had forecast 40,000 to 50,000 participants but only about 4,500 people turned out in inclement weather. Although the event, promoted by Hamas and allied activists, was peaceful, Hamas members in the Gaza Strip fired rockets at southern Israel while the protest was under way, wounding a child.

After the human chain broke up, Palestinian youngsters hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers at Gaza’s Eretz border crossing. The Israeli Army said it detained 50 stone-throwers.

Gaza’s isolation intensified when Hamas took control of the area in June after street fighting in which it routed Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has embarked on peace talks with Israel.

Israel has sealed the territory to all but vital humanitarian supplies since Hamas seized power. The Palestinians and several international agencies say the sanctions amount to collective punishment of the civilian population.

The Popular Committee Against the Siege, a politically independent group headed by Jamal Al-Khudari, an MP with close links to Hamas, had called for the demonstration. “This is a peaceful and civilized act to let the people express their rejection of the siege and of collective punishment,” Al-Khudari told journalists. “We are raising a cry to the world for it to act,” he continued, adding that the committee had taken measures to ensure the human chain did not conflict with the Israeli Army.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said, “This is a message addressed to the international community and to the Israeli occupation, and I hope it will seize the opportunity to lift the siege.”

Huzeifa Al-Masri, 14, said he and his classmates from the northern border town of Beit Hanun had come because “there is hardly any food.” “The Israeli incursions are frequent. We want to live in security like the rest of the world,” he said.

Israeli Army and police said they had beefed up forces in the border area. “Israel will not intervene in demonstrations inside the Gaza Strip but it will ensure the defense of its territory and prevent any violation of its sovereign borders,” said a joint statement from Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Their statement accused Hamas of “orchestrating a premeditated effort to put civilians on the front line.”

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Israel wanted to avoid any humanitarian crisis in Gaza and was working with the United Nations and other organizations to prevent one.

Egypt has also blocked its border with Gaza but Hamas blew open the frontier wall last month, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to cross into Egypt and stock up with food and other goods in short supply.

Hamas is shunned by Israel and the West for refusing to give up its stated goal of seeing the Jewish state eliminated. It has, however, offered a skeptical Israel a conditional, long-term cease-fire.

Four Palestinian were killed yesterday and six others were wounded in separate Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, witnesses and medical sources said.

Two members of the Al-Qassam Brigades — the armed wing of Hamas movement — were killed and three others were wounded in an airstrike on the village of Khuzau close to Khan Younis in the south of the strip.

In another airstrike, a third Hamas member was killed when an Israeli helicopter fired at least one missile at a group of Hamas members in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza city. The attack left another three people injured.

Also in Gaza, a member of Al-Naser Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committee, was found dead in the eastern city of Rafah. Medical sources said that the body of 22-year-old Medhat Odeh was found lying on the ground after Israeli troops that invaded Al-Shwuka village withdrew yesterday.

— With input from agencies