Israeli troops kill 14 demonstrators in clashes on Syrian border

ISRAELI troops fired at demonstrators in Syria who rushed toward the border fence yesterday in what Israel called a challenge to its sovereignty, killing 14 and leaving around 225 injured.

“Anyone who tries to cross the border will be killed,” Israeli soldiers shouted through loudspeakers at the crowd of several hundred on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights who rallied to a Facebook call to march to the frontier on the 44th anniversary of the Arab defeat in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel captured Syria’s Golan Heights, as well as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip where Palestinians want to establish a state, in that conflict.

Israeli officials have said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gave the green light for the Golan protests in an effort to divert international attention from his bloody quashing of the popular revolt against his authoritarian rule.

The border protests by unarmed demonstrators have raised Israeli concerns that Palestinians, inspired by popular revolts in the Arab world, have adopted a new tactic calculated to draw a violent response and boost world sympathy for their cause.

Israel had been on alert for a repetition of last month’s storming by thousands of Palestinian protesters of Israel’s frontiers with Syria and Lebanon. Thirteen people were killed in those demonstrations marking the Naqba, or what Palestinians term the catastrophe of Israel’s founding in 1948.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out of their villages and towns during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war live in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Gaza.

Approaching Israeli lines, Palestinians in Syria descended from a hilltop overlooking the Druze village of Majdal Shams and reached the disputed border, which, before last month, had been largely tranquil for decades.

Israel radio said a large number of people were hurt when an anti-tank mine was detonated by a brush fire at Quneitra, another protest venue near the border.

Israel’s chief military spokesman, Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, said troops had opened fire. He did not confirm any casualties. “It’s a message to anyone who tries to violate Israel’s sovereign borders,” he said, describing the army’s actions as a “measured, focused and proper response”.

Hours before the violence flared, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered Israeli forces to act with restraint, but determination, to prevent any border breach.

“To my regret, today there are extremists around us trying to breach our borders, and threaten our towns and citizens. We will not allow this,” Netanyahu told his cabinet.

Facing demonstrators waving Palestinian flags, Israeli marksmen crouched in positions along the Syrian frontier. A spotter next to the riflemen peered at the protesters through long-range binoculars.

Israeli television broadcast the scene live, with running commentary from reporters on the ground.

Protesters planted Palestinian and Syrian flags near the barrier on the rocky plateau.

There were no reports of incidents along the Lebanese border. In the occupied West Bank, about 100 Palestinian protesters marched to an Israeli military checkpoint, where soldiers fired tear gas and the crowd fled.

A Palestinian medic said 14 Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets in clashes between stone-throwing youths and Israeli forces, who also deployed a “skunk mobile”, a vehicle that sprays demonstrators with a foul-smelling liquid.

Reuters