Nakba Day Protests: Israeli Gunfire Kills 2 Palestinians in Golan, One in Gaza
Israeli gunfire killed three people and wounded hundreds Sunday as Palestinians marched on Israel's borders with Syria and Gaza in a mass show of mourning over the creation of the Jewish state.
Tensions along the Israeli-Syrian frontier spiraled as thousands of protesters from Syria tried to force their way into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, prompting the army to open fire in one of the worst incidents of violence there since a 1974 truce accord.
Syria lashed out at Israel for the bloodshed, warning that the Jewish state would bear full responsibility for its "criminal" actions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel would continue to protect its borders. "Their struggle is not over the 1967 borders, but it questions the very existence of Israel, which they describe as a catastrophe which must be resolved," he said in a televised address.
"We are determined to defend our borders and our sovereignty."
A Druze doctor from Majdal Shams who rushed to the scene told Agence France Presse he saw at least two bodies, with local paramedics confirming the same toll, saying one had been shot in the head, and the second in the chest.
They also treated 20 people for light to moderate injuries.
Along Gaza's northern border with Israel, 125 people were injured, five of them seriously, when troops opened fired as more than a thousand Palestinians marched on the Erez crossing.
At least half of the wounded were minors, medics said.
The Israeli army issued a statement saying "hundreds of Syrian rioters" had crossed onto the Israeli side, and in response troops had "fired selectively" towards them, injuring an unspecified number.
Elsewhere, at least 29 others were injured in clashes across annexed east Jerusalem and in the West Bank.
Israeli troops also shot dead a Palestinian in an area east of Gaza City but medics said the incident was not related to the Nakba protests.
In southern Gaza, more than 5,000 demonstrators also held a mass rally in the southern city of Rafah, which lies on the border with Egypt, an AFP correspondent said.
They waved Palestinian flags and held up huge replica wooden keys to homes they fled or were expelled from during the Arab-Israeli war which accompanied the creation of the Jewish state.
Since Friday, Palestinians and Arab Israelis staged a series of events in the run-up to Sunday's anniversary, marking the anniversary of Israel's creation in 1948, in an event referred to in Arabic as the "Nakba" or "catastrophe."
In the southern city of Hebron, 12 people were hit by rubber bullets fired by Israeli troops as an estimated 2,000 demonstrators held a protest, medical and security sources said.
And 17 people were hospitalized in Ramallah after being hit by rubber bullets during heavy clashes near the Qalandiya crossing near annexed east Jerusalem, as thousands gathered for a protest, medical sources said.
Police arrested 36 people following a day of clashes in the east Jerusalem, while in Tel Aviv, police were investigating after a truck driven by a 22-year-old Arab Israeli ploughed into a bus and four cars, killing one and injuring another five.
The driver blamed the incident on a burst tire, but police said they investigating whether the driver had been acting on nationalist motives.
In Jordan, six people were injured as police tried to stop 200 students from marching on the border, while in Turkey, around 100 demonstrators held a protest outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, AFP correspondents said.
The protests began on Friday and quickly turned deadly when an east Jerusalem teenager was shot in the stomach during clashes in Silwan. He later died, with his death blamed by the family on a Jewish settler.
More than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated today to number 4.8 million with their descendants -- were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict that accompanied the Jewish state's foundation.
Figures from the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees show there are one million refugees in the Gaza Strip, 750,000 in the West Bank, two million in Jordan, 475,000 in Syria and 400,000 in Lebanon.
Source: Agence France Presse
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