The Fayetteville Observer · 17 May 2018
CP-2018-025
Little to lose, Gaza men drawn to protests
By Fares Akram The Associated Press
Transcribed from the clipping
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Marwan Shtewi is poor, unemployed and at the age of 32 has never even left the Gaza Strip. With few prospects and little to fear, Shtewi is among the crowds of young men who put themselves on the front lines of violent protests along the border with Israel, risking their lives in a weekly showdown meant to draw attention to the dire conditions of Gaza.
While protest organizers voice slogans of defending Jerusalem and returning to the lost homes of their forefathers in Israel, it is the desperation among young men like Shtewi that has been the driving force in the demonstrations.
Recovering from a gunshot wound to his arm that sent shrapnel into his abdomen, Shtewi says his protest days are now behind him and he only dreams of finally finding a job. “I want to see peace and hope and prosperity spread in Gaza when I get out of the hospital,” he said from his hospital bed.
The Hamas-led organizers of what they called the Great March of Return initially billed the six-week protests as a call to break through the border fence and return to homes that were lost 70 years ago during the war surrounding Israel’s creation. Two-thirds of Gaza’s 2 million people are descendants of refugees who either fled or were forced from their homes.
But most protesters say they are simply driven by desperation caused by a decade-long blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militants seized power from the internationally backed Palestinian Authority in 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas, which seeks Israel’s destruction, from building up its military capabilities.
How this transcription was made
Read from the scan by a machine looking at the image of the page, not by optical character recognition and not by a person. The printed date on the page agrees with the date recorded here.
Cite this clipping
"Little to lose, Gaza men drawn to protests," The Fayetteville Observer, 17 May 2018, p. A6. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2018-025. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2018-025
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Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
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