Nine killed, scores injured as Nakba commemoration gains momentum

[ 15/05/2011 - 05:15 PM ]

GOLAN, (PIC)-- Nine people were killed and scores others were left injured during the commemoration of the 63rd Nakba along the border between Lebanon and Golan Heights. Those killed include Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese. Media reports say that five Palestinian refugees were killed and more than 30 others were shot as the Israeli occupation force cracked down on protests in Maroun al-Ras village along the Lebanese-Palestinian border. Hundreds of Arabs headed for the border on the sidelines of a Nakba ceremony held in the village and hurled stones at the IOF soldiers stationed on the border before they were shot at. The Israeli army declared the border area across from Maroun Al-Ras a closed military zone, as thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon crowded in the area demanding the right of return to their occupied lands. Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera reported that four were killed and dozens of Syrians were injured near the Magdal Shams village in the occupied Golan Heights. That was after several Palestinians and Syrians tried to cross borders towards Golan. IOF soldiers responded with gunfire. According to Israeli daily Yediot Ahranot, some 30 Syrians tried to cross the security fence when the army opened fire at them. Around 20 were injured, some of them seriously. The IOF has declared a state of alert in the region. Many ambulances are on the way to the village. Israel's Maariv gave mention to some ten thousand Palestinians and Syrians who took part in a march that tried to cross Syria's borders with occupied Palestine. More than 45 Palestinians were shot wounded by Israeli occupation forces on Sunday as they marked the Nakba near the Beit Hanoun border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, medics in Palestine said. Wide-ranging events have begun in refugee camps in occupied Palestinian territories in memory of the national catastrophe known as the Nakba in 1948. Palestine Info Center