Israeli troops kill 14 pro-Palestinian protesters along Syrian border

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Israeli troops kill 14 pro-Palestinian protesters along Syrian border

By la Cheslow, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 4 minutes 59

seconds ago

MAJDAL SHAMS, GOLAN HEIGHTS, Israel - Israeli troops opened fire Sunday at a

crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters who tried to break into the

Israeli-controlled Golan Heights from neighbouring Syria, killing as many as 14

people and wounding scores in a burst of violence marking the Arab defeat in the

1967 Middle East War.

The casualty figures came from Syrian state television and were confirmed by the

head of a hospital treating the casualties. The Israeli military said it was not

tracking casualties on either side. The latest television report said a woman

and child were among the dead.

Israel angrily accused the Syrian regime of orchestrating the violence — the

second border clash in less than a month — to deflect attention from its bloody

crackdown on a popular uprising at home. Syrian television said the melee was

spontaneous and reflected built-up anger among Palestinians.

Israel had promised to prevent a repeat of last month's deadly protests, in

which hundreds of people broke through a border fence, entered the Golan and

clashed with Israeli forces. Thousands of troops were mobilized in anticipation

of possible unrest.

" Unfortunately, extremist forces around us are trying today to breach our

borders and threaten our communities and our citizens. We will not let them do

that, " Prime Minister Netanyahu told his Cabinet. He said security

forces had been ordered to show " maximum restraint. "

Despite Israel's warnings, hundreds of demonstrators — a mix of Palestinians and

their Syrian supporters — passed by Syrian and United Nations outposts early

Sunday and marched to the barbed-wire lined trench the Israeli military dug

along the border after last month's unrest. Protesters waved Palestinian flags

and threw rocks and trash over the fence.

The Israeli army said protesters had hurled firebombs at defence force troops,

setting fires and leading to the explosion of four landmines on the Syrian side

of the border.

As the crowd reached the border, soldiers shouted warnings through megaphones.

" Anybody who gets close to the fence is endangering his life, " they said.

When the demonstrators pushed forward, troops opened fire, sending crowds

running in panic. Several wounded people were taken away by demonstrators, but

dozens more continued heading toward the trench. Those evacuating casualties

shouted " shahid, " or " martyr. "

Protesters, most of them young men, eventually managed to cut through coils of

barbed wire marking the frontier, entering a buffer zone and crawling toward a

second fence guarded by Israeli troops. Every so often, they evacuated a dead or

wounded protester, and more men raced in to take their place.

As the standoff stretched into the evening, Israeli forces fired heavy barrages

of tear gas to break up the crowds. Hundreds of people fled the area in panic,

while some 20 people laying on the ground received treatment. It remained

unclear whether the tear gas broke up the protest for the evening, or

temporarily pushed the crowd back.

Dr. Ali Kanaan, director of the Quneitra hospital, confirmed the state

television report of 14 dead — 12 Palestinians and two Syrians. He said 225 were

wounded. The youngest among the dead on a list from the hospital was 15-year-old

Palestinian Mohammed Issa who lived in the Neira refugee camp in Aleppo, Syria.

Several protesters said the saw a landmine explode near two Israeli soldiers as

they were chasing away the crowds at the border.

" We were trying to cut the barbed wire when the Israeli soldiers began shooting

directly at us, " Ghayath Awad, a 29-year-old Palestinian who had been shot in

the waist, told the AP at the hospital.

State-run Syrian TV reported six dead, including a 12-year-old boy, and 15

wounded. There was no immediate confirmation of those reports.

Mohammed Hasan, a 16-year old student, was wounded in both feet. " We want on

this occasion to remind America and the whole world that we have a right to

return to our country, " he said.

The recent protests are designed to draw attention to the plight of Palestinian

refugees who fled or were expelled from their homes during Israel's war of

independence in 1948. The original refugees, and their descendants, now number

several million, and they demand " the right to return " to the families' former

properties.

Israel says a return of these people would spell the end of the country as a

Jewish state, and says they should be resettled in a future Palestinian state

alongside Israel.

Around half a million Palestinian refugees live across 13 camps in Syria, a

country with a population of 23 million. Palestinians are allowed to work and

study in government and private schools, but they do not have citizenship and

cannot vote.

The Israeli military put the blame on the Syrian regime, which has killed more

than 1,200 citizens during three months of demonstrations against the

Alawite-dominated government of President Bashar Assad. The Syrian military,

which tightly controls access to the border, did not keep the protesters from

reaching the fence.

" This is an attempt to divert international attention from the bloodbath going

on in Syria, " said Lt.-Col. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman.

" In the end, we are guarding our border, " she said. " I wish they had obeyed our

verbal warnings, but they chose instead to clash with the soldiers. "

The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots into the air after people

started approaching the border fence, then issued verbal warnings to protesters

to stay away. After some of the protesters reached the fence, soldiers opened

fire at their legs, the military said.

Residents of Majdal Shams, ethnic Druse who remain Syrian citizens while living

on the Israeli side of the frontier, watched the protest from rooftops, booing

each time the military tried to speak and cheering on the protesters. When

troops fired tear gas, a crowd of residents — some holding Syrian or Palestinian

flags — began to scream and hurl stones from rooftops at the nearby forces.

At one point, several dozen Syrian protesters stopped along a hillside to pray,

bowing to the ground in unison. Later, protesters split into several groups,

trying to throw off the army as they tried to cut through the barbed-wire

trench. A burning tire was thrown into the trench, sending a plume of smoke into

the air.

The demonstrators moved toward the frontier even after more than a dozen people

were killed during similar attempts along the Syrian and Lebanese frontiers on

May 15, the day that Arabs mourn the establishment of Israel.

Sunday's protest marked 44 years since the 1967 Mideast war erupted. That war, a

humiliating defeat for Arab states, saw Israel conquer the Sinai Peninsula and

Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the West Bank and east

Jerusalem from Jordan, all in six days.

Israel has withdrawn from the Sinai and Gaza, but remains in control of the

other areas. Israel annexed the Golan in 1981 in a move that was never

recognized internationally.

Things were relatively calm on Israel's other borders on Sunday.

About 400 Gazans hoisting Palestinian flags and posters gathered near the main

passenger crossing into Israel, but Hamas riot police prevented them from

marching toward the crossing.

At the West Bank's main crossing into Jerusalem, several hundred Palestinian

young people tried to approach the checkpoint. They threw stones at Israeli

forces, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. No injuries were

reported.