Following on from this morning’s Naqba terror attack, anywhere from seventy to hundreds of people infiltrated into Israel from Syria, and Lebanese “protesters” pelted IDF soldiers with stones and chanted “we want our land back.”
Photo: Channel 10
Israel Defense Forces troops on Sunday opened fire on masses of infiltrators trying to breach Israel’s northern borders with Syria and Lebanon, as Nakba Day demonstrations erupted across the region. Some eight people were reportedly killed in the clashes over the course of the day.
Four people were said killed as scores of Palestinian refugees spilled into the town of Majdal Shams, which runs along Israel’s border with Syria. The Magen David Adom medical services said about a dozen others had been wounded. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed opening fire on infiltrators.
About 70 people, most of them Palestinian refugees, managed to cross the border, according to residents of Majdal Shams. Initial reports had put the number of infiltrators into the hundreds.
“The way it was reported to me, they broke through the fence,” Dolan Abu Salah, the mayor of Majdal Shams, told Army Radio.
Thousands of people also gathered in the Lebanese town of Maroun a-Ras, close to the Israeli border, to mark Nakba Day.
Four people were reportedly killed and at least five were wounded there, as Palestinian protesters tried to push their way across the border with Israel, local media reports said, citing eyewitnesses.
Carrying Palestinian flags and chanting “we want our land back” thousands of Palestinians tried to approach the electrical fence that separates Lebanon from Israel, but Lebanese army troops fired in the air and ordered the crowd to return to where the rally was held.
The demonstrators pelted the Lebanese army with stones as it struggled to hold them back from the security fence.
But around 50 protesters managed to reach the fence and started throwing stones at the Israeli soldiers on the other side of the fence, prompting the Israeli soldiers to fire their guns and tear gas at the protesters.
Speakers representing the various Palestinian factions called through loud speakers on the Palestinian youths to stop throwing stones at the Israelis, but their calls were ignored.
The IDF spokesman has described the incidents as an “Iranian provocation.”
“The radical axis of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas is very clear,” Brig.-Gen. Yoav “Poli” Mordechai told Channel 10 News.
“We have one incident in Maroun a-Ras area on Lebanese border and a second one at Majdal Shams, where we see fingerprints of Iranian provocation aimed at creating friction,” he said.
Updates (Israel time; latest from top)
6:18PM: Instead of kicking their sorry asses back to Syria, this is how the IDF handled the return of the infiltrators:
By Sunday afternoon, the infiltrators began to make their way back to Syria following negotiations between the IDF, police and Druze elders.
The forces tried not to intervene as the Syrian youngsters marched back to their country while calling out “we’ll be back,” encouraged by applause from the Druze villagers who looked on.
Meanwhile, the 6 people killed on the Lebanese-Israeli border were likely killed by the Lebanese Army, who directed heavy fire at the protestors.
4:15PM: Ynet reports that some of the infiltrators wanted Israel to grant them asylum!
“I’m tired of living in Syria, we’d rather die than see more bloodshed,” one of the Syrian infiltrators into Majdal Shams told Ynet. He called on Israel to grant him asylum, adding: “We’ve crossed the border in order to stay with our families, away from all the killing in Syria. We ask the powers at be in Israel to help us stay and not send us back.”
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Some of those expressing a wish to remain on the Israeli side of the border, said the uprising against Syrian President Assad is proving more and more dangerous and that many Palestinians now fear for their lives.
But only some of them..
Other infiltrators told Ynet that “we come in peace,” adding that they had decided to cross the border with aim of living in the Golan Heights – “even if it means risking our lives.” Still, others declared “we are here to liberate the Syrian Palestinian land. These people are Palestinian freeman, the Allah willing, the Palestinian groups will not give up.”
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
