Israeli’s kill 20 during protest at Golan border

Posted on | juni 5, 2011 | No Comments

Israeli troops fired Sunday at demonstrators in Syria who rushed toward the border fence in a protest against Israeli occupation, and Syrian state television said 20 were killed. There were 325 wounded, 12 of them critically, sources in the hospital in Qunietra said.

“Anyone who tries to cross the border will be killed,” Israeli soldiers shouted at the crowd of several hundred through loudspeakers on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Sunday was calld the ‘Naksa commemoration. It marked the 44th anniversary of the 1967 Middle East war, in which Israel occupied Syria’s Golan Heights, as well as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s chief military spokesman, Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, said troops had opened fire but he could not confirm any casualties. He described Israel’s response as “measured, focused and proper.”

A Reuters correspondent at the scene saw at least 10 demonstrators carried away on stretchers by the crowd but no sign of any holes in the main border barrier.

“This is like a turkey shoot,” said Fuad al-Sha’ar, an apple grower who lives in Majdal Shams.

Protesters did cut through strands of barbed wire that Israel placed in an area between the fence, which is located inside Israeli-occupied territory, and the Syria frontier designated by U.N. stone markers.

The protests began around 11 a.m. with what appeared to be several dozen youths, brought in on buses. It gained strength through the day.

By evening, the crowd had swelled to more than 1,000 people, who milled about, prayed and chanted slogans in an uneasy standoff with Israeli troops in the distance. The army bolstered its positions, posting a dozen armored vehicles and jeeps along the border road.

A small group of youths managed to cut through a recently fortified coil of barbed-wire and took up positions in a trench inside a buffer zone about 20 yards (meters) from a final border fence. Israeli troops periodically opened fire at young activists jumping into the ditch, sending puffs of soil flying into the air.

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 was not immediately clear whether the crowd would return to the front lines.

At nightfall, crowds of people fell to the ground in Muslim prayer, and several small groups lit bonfires, indicating the standoff would continue.

Israel had promised a tough response after being caught off guard in last month’s demonstrations, when troops killed more than a dozen people during a similar protestat the occasion of Nakba day, the commemoration of the war of 1948 and the expulsion of the Palestinians.

AUTHOR: Martin Hijmans
URL: http://the-pessoptimist.blogspot.com/
E-MAIL: m.hijmans [at] planet.nl