Israel is blaming the embattled Syrian government for allowing hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters to charge an Israeli security fence in Golan Heights yesterday, leading to clashes where Israeli soldiers opened fire, killing several of the demonstrators.
Syrian state television last night said 23 protesters were killed, with hundreds more wounded. The Israeli military said it was aware of 12 injured protesters.
A spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces confirmed that soldiers had opened fire at the protesters, but did not comment on the reports of casualties.
“We verbally warned them, we shot warning shots into the air,” spokeswoman Avital Leibovitch told reporters. “When this failed, we had to direct some fire to their feet in order to try to protect our fence.”
Leibovitch pointed to the Syrian government’s atypical willingness to permit protesters to reach the border fences, something it had previously resisted in order to avoid an Israeli military response.
“We believe that the Syrian regime is focusing the world’s attention on the border with Israel instead of what is happening there,” she said.
With massive unrest seizing several Syrian cities, she argued, the regime of President Bashar Assad has sought to redirect attention toward the territorial struggles and the conflict with Israel.
It was the second time in less than a month that protesters had managed to amass near the security fences that demarcate Israeli territory at the Syrian border — activity the Syrian government usually tightly controls.
In Lebanon, where Palestinian protesters also approached the Israeli border yesterday, Lebanese soldiers prevented them from getting too close.
Yesterday’s demonstration, in a valley outside the remote town of Majdal Shams, marked the anniversary of the start of the 1967 Six-Day War, during which Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria.
The storming of the border by unarmed protesters was part of a new, more confrontational approach by pro-Palestinian groups outside Israel, some of whom hope to ride the recent wave of popular uprisings across the Middle East. During a previous border storming in mid-May, on the anniversary of Israel’s founding, activists from surrounding territories converged on the borders of Israel from several different places, including the West Bank, southern Lebanon and Golan Heights. At least 10 Arabs were killed that day.
Israeli officials condemned yesterday’s actions, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denouncing the demonstrators in Golan Heights as “extremist elements” who “are trying to break through our borders and threaten our communities and our citizens.”
Images and video from the Associated Press and other sources at yesterday’s demonstration showed protesters tearing away portions of the barbed wiring at the outer limits of the Israeli security fence. Israeli soldiers could be seen crouching behind barricades and firing their weapons, and protesters returning volleys of rocks and Molotov cocktails.
Yemen’s Saleh recovers
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is said to be awake and recovering from brain surgery in a hospital in Saudi Arabia, after sustaining serious injuries during an attack on his compound last week.
Protesters, interpreting Saleh’s absence as a sign that his grip on power was weakening, celebrated on the streets of San‘a, where they have been staging anti-government demonstrations since January.
“Who is next?” asked one banner held up by protesters in a sea of red, white and black Yemeni flags, referring to the wave of uprisings in the Arab world that has seen the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt toppled and inspired uprisings elsewhere.
38 dead in Syria
A Syrian human rights observer said yesterday that 38 protesters had been killed in clashes with the military over the weekend, as the civil turmoil in Syria showed little signs of abating.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, described continuing clashes in the northwestern Idlib province, while in the central city of Hama, where some 50 people were reportedly killed on Friday, 100,000 protesters prepared for a three-day hunger strike.
The crackdown has raised Western pressure on President Bashar Assad, 45, who has tried to strengthen his regional clout by reaffirming an alliance with Iran and backing militant groups.
— Joshua Hersh
Syrian state television last night said 23 protesters were killed, with hundreds more wounded. The Israeli military said it was aware of 12 injured protesters.
A spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces confirmed that soldiers had opened fire at the protesters, but did not comment on the reports of casualties.
“We verbally warned them, we shot warning shots into the air,” spokeswoman Avital Leibovitch told reporters. “When this failed, we had to direct some fire to their feet in order to try to protect our fence.”
Leibovitch pointed to the Syrian government’s atypical willingness to permit protesters to reach the border fences, something it had previously resisted in order to avoid an Israeli military response.
“We believe that the Syrian regime is focusing the world’s attention on the border with Israel instead of what is happening there,” she said.
With massive unrest seizing several Syrian cities, she argued, the regime of President Bashar Assad has sought to redirect attention toward the territorial struggles and the conflict with Israel.
It was the second time in less than a month that protesters had managed to amass near the security fences that demarcate Israeli territory at the Syrian border — activity the Syrian government usually tightly controls.
In Lebanon, where Palestinian protesters also approached the Israeli border yesterday, Lebanese soldiers prevented them from getting too close.
Yesterday’s demonstration, in a valley outside the remote town of Majdal Shams, marked the anniversary of the start of the 1967 Six-Day War, during which Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria.
The storming of the border by unarmed protesters was part of a new, more confrontational approach by pro-Palestinian groups outside Israel, some of whom hope to ride the recent wave of popular uprisings across the Middle East. During a previous border storming in mid-May, on the anniversary of Israel’s founding, activists from surrounding territories converged on the borders of Israel from several different places, including the West Bank, southern Lebanon and Golan Heights. At least 10 Arabs were killed that day.
Israeli officials condemned yesterday’s actions, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denouncing the demonstrators in Golan Heights as “extremist elements” who “are trying to break through our borders and threaten our communities and our citizens.”
Images and video from the Associated Press and other sources at yesterday’s demonstration showed protesters tearing away portions of the barbed wiring at the outer limits of the Israeli security fence. Israeli soldiers could be seen crouching behind barricades and firing their weapons, and protesters returning volleys of rocks and Molotov cocktails.
Yemen’s Saleh recovers
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is said to be awake and recovering from brain surgery in a hospital in Saudi Arabia, after sustaining serious injuries during an attack on his compound last week.
Protesters, interpreting Saleh’s absence as a sign that his grip on power was weakening, celebrated on the streets of San‘a, where they have been staging anti-government demonstrations since January.
“Who is next?” asked one banner held up by protesters in a sea of red, white and black Yemeni flags, referring to the wave of uprisings in the Arab world that has seen the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt toppled and inspired uprisings elsewhere.
38 dead in Syria
A Syrian human rights observer said yesterday that 38 protesters had been killed in clashes with the military over the weekend, as the civil turmoil in Syria showed little signs of abating.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, described continuing clashes in the northwestern Idlib province, while in the central city of Hama, where some 50 people were reportedly killed on Friday, 100,000 protesters prepared for a three-day hunger strike.
The crackdown has raised Western pressure on President Bashar Assad, 45, who has tried to strengthen his regional clout by reaffirming an alliance with Iran and backing militant groups.
— Joshua Hersh
