This Article is From May 15, 2011

9 killed as Israel clashes with Palestinians on four borders

9 killed as Israel clashes with Palestinians on four borders
Jerusalem: Israel's borders erupted into deadly clashes on Sunday as thousands of Palestinians -- marching from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank -- confronted Israeli troops to mark the anniversary when Arabs mourn Israel's creation. As many as nine Palestinians were reported killed and scores injured in the unprecedented wave of coordinated protests. The biggest confrontation took place on the Golan Heights when hundreds of Palestinians living in Syria breached a border fence and crowded into the village of Majdal Shams, waving Palestinian flags. Troops fired on the crowd, killing four of them.

At the Lebanese border Israeli troops shot at hundreds of Palestinians trying to cross, killing four protesters and wounding dozens more, according to Lebanese officials.

Every year in mid-May many Palestinians mark what they call Nakba, or the catastrophe, the anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence in 1948 and the start of a war in which thousands of Palestinians lost their homes through expulsion and flight.

But this is the first year that Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon tried to breach the Israeli military border in marches inspired by recent popular protests around the Arab world. Here too, word about the rallies was spread on social media sites.

"The Palestinians are not less rebellious than other Arab peoples," said Ali Baraka, a Hamas representative in Lebanon.

Officials and analysts have argued that with peace talks broken down and plans for a request of the United Nations to declare Palestinian statehood in September, violence could return to define this conflict, which has been relatively quiet for the past two years.

"This is war, we're defending our country," asserted Amjad Abu Taha, a 16-year-old from Bethlehem as he took part along with thousands in the West Bank city of Ramallah near the main military checkpoint to Israel. He held a cigarette in one hand and a rock in the other. Hundreds of Israeli troops using stun guns and tear gas roamed the area.

In Gaza, a march toward Israel also resulted in Israeli troops shooting into the crowd and wounding dozens. The Hamas police stopped buses carrying protesters near the main crossing into Israel, but dozens of demonstrators walked on foot and reached a point that they have not reached for nearly 10 years.

Later, in a separate incident, an 18-year-old Gazan near another part of the border fence was shot and killed by Israeli troops when, the Israeli military says, he was trying to plant an explosive.

The chief Israeli military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, said on Israel radio that he saw Iran's fingerprints in the coordinated confrontations although he offered no evidence. Syria has a close alliance with Iran, as does Hezbollah, which controls southern Lebanon, and Hamas, which rules in Gaza.

Yoni Ben-Menachem, Israel Radio's chief Arab affairs analyst, said it seemed likely that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria was seeking to divert attention from his troubles caused by popular uprisings there in recent weeks by allowing confrontations on the Golan Heights for the first time in decades.

"This way Syria makes its contribution to the Nakba day cause and Assad wins points by deflecting the media's attention from what is happening inside Syria," he added.

Last week, in an interview with The New York Times, a top Syrian businessman and cousin of the president said, "If there is no stability here, there's no way there will be stability in Israel." He urged the West to reduce pressure on the Syrian government. An Israeli military spokesman, Captain Barak Raz, said the shooting by Israeli troops at the infiltrators from Syria was done only at those trying to damage the security barrier and equipment there. Some 13 Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded from thrown rocks.

The day' troubles began with an Israeli Arab truck driver running over a group in Tel Aviv, killing one man and injuring more than a dozen others in what police described as a terrorist attack. Later, hundreds of Lebanese joined by Palestinians from more than nine refugee camps in Lebanon headed toward the border, around the town of Maroun al-Ras, scene of some of the worst fighting in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

They passed posters that had gone up the past week on highways in Lebanon. "People want to return to Palestine," they read, in a play on the slogan made famous in Egypt and Tunisia, "People want the fall of the regime." Though the Lebanese army tried to block them from arriving at the border, some managed to reach it. They placed a Palestinian flag at the fence, and some threw rocks, witnesses said. Israeli soldiers opened fire and at least four were killed and 30 wounded.

Even in Lebanon, some speculated about the political message of the march, which came as Syrian President Assad grapples with the gravest challenge to 40 years of his family's rule. The crackdown persisted Sunday, with the military continuing its assault on Telkalakh, a town near the Lebanese border. "Palestinians can only reach the border if they get permission from Lebanese intelligence," said Haytham Zaayter, an expert on Palestinian issues. The United Nations peacekeeping force in the border region called for "maximum restraint on all sides in order to prevent any further casualties" and "immediate concrete security steps on the ground" to prevent any further bloodshed.
.