Let Friday be a lesson to anyone who has ever believed for a single second that Israel and its forces of occupation are anything but a murderous regime unaccountable to anyone but itself. That, in truth, is the only conclusion that can be drawn from the bloody events that occurred on the illegal border between the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and the territory claimed by Israel. There, some 10,000 Gazans gathered along the barbed wire fences and electrified security barriers to protest their isolation and the means and manner by which the occupation administration separates the enclave from the rest of Palestine, their families and brothers.

But Israel is a fascist and brutal state that does not allow Palestinians the right to assembly or association. And for that reason, Israeli occupation forces opened fire on the Gazans. More than 1,800 were injured, and 15 were killed in the fusillade of lead and rubber-coated steel pellets. One other man, a farmer, died when a tank — yes, a tank — fired on him.

Over the past decades or so, on three occasions, Israel launched a full military assault on the people of Gaza. Each time, it had used its Washington-supplied and funded arsenal on a largely unarmed civilian population. And the events of Friday show that it still has no compunction in using its hardware of war on protesters.

In a series of other events, occupation forces had opened fire previously on Palestinian demonstrators. And on each such occasion, as those murderers pulled the triggers or assassinated injured Palestinians as they lay on streets that had been stolen by the occupation forces decades ago, they went unpunished and unsanctioned. What is sure now is that those who fired shot and shell, round after round, into the Gazans assembled at that frontier fence need not worry about the morality or legality of their actions: The apparatus of state for the occupation powers treats Palestinians as non-people, and the action will be regarded as nothing more than pest control.

But Israelis should take note. There is a reckoning coming, and the United Nations has said that it wants an investigation. Yes, there is every probability that the United States will use its veto to prevent its puppet from being sanctioned. The day of reckoning will come, and history has shown us again and again that right prevails over might. There will be a day when all Palestinians will be free — and their true friends will see that justice will prevail.