France24 news
written by AFP staff
Monday June 6, 2011
The Israeli army said on Monday that 10 people had been killed during Sunday's "Naksa Day" protests along the Syrian ceasefire line, describing Damascus's toll of 23 as "exaggerated."
Israeli leaders accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of encouraging the unrest to divert attention from his crackdown on domestic protests, while Damascus accused Israel of "flagrant aggression."
Troops in the Golan Heights remained on high alert after Sunday's bloodshed which Syrian state television said killed 23 people and wounded 350 when Israeli troops shot at protesters marking the anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War.
Israel's military said it counted 10 protesters dead -- none of whom was killed by Israeli fire.
"We are aware that around 10 of the casualties that the Syrians reported yesterday were killed by the fact that they used Molotov cocktails in the Quneitra area that hit some Syrian landmines," Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovitz told AFP.
"I think there is solid ground to believe that (the Syrian figures) are exaggerated," she said. "A big number of them died as a result of their own deeds."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops used live fire as a last resort.
"We used many varied non-lethal means and the firing was a last resort after all other options had been used," the premier told reporters in parliament.
Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak accused Assad of trying to divert attention from his domestic problems.
"Perhaps it is an attempt to divert international attention from the wholesale killing of civilians being carried out in the cities of Syria," Netanyahu said.
"We have no choice, we have to defend our border and Assad, in my opinion will fall in the end," said Barak.
Syria accused Israel of shooting civilians. [Syria has a lot of nerve to be passing judgement, considering they have killed 1,000 unarmed Syrian anti-regime protestors this year alone. Either by shooting them in the streets or invading their private homes. (emphasis mine)]
"Syria strongly denounces the flagrant attack yesterday on unarmed civilians, Syrian and Palestinians, along the demarcation line in the occupied Golan," a foreign ministry statement said.
"The aggression resulted in a large number of dead and wounded... and unmasks the reality of the state terrorism practised by Israel."
Sunday's confrontation erupted as hundreds of protesters from Syria marched towards two points along the ceasefire line -- Quneitra in no-man's land, and Majdal Shams, the Druze town on the Israeli-occupied side of the plateau.
As they began cutting through a line of barbed wire, troops urged them to stop in Arabic and fired tear gas, then warning shots after which they took aim at the lower body, the military said.
The protests coincided with the 44th anniversary of Israel's seizure of the Golan, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967 Middle East War in an event known in Arabic as the "Naksa" or "setback."
Three weeks earlier, thousands of protesters in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza tried to force their way across the borders in a mass show of mourning over the 1948 creation of the Jewish state, known as the "Nakba" or "catastrophe."
At that time, hundreds forced their way onto the Israeli-controlled Golan prompting troops to open fire killing four, while a similar yet unsuccessful attempt along the Lebanon border left six dead.
Although nobody succeeded in crossing the frontier on Sunday, they ran down a hill into no-man's land on the Syrian side to a ditch filled with barbed wire which had been dug by the Israelis last week, but they were not able to cross it.
The bloodshed provoked international concern, with the US State Department saying it was "deeply troubled" by events on the Golan Heights, while acknowledging Israel's right to self-defence.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed "deep concern" and said the world body was seeking to confirm facts about what had happened.
"The events of today and of 15 May on the Golan put the long-held ceasefire in jeopardy," a statement from Ban's office said, calling for "maximum restraint on all sides."
And British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on all parties "to avoid provocative acts."
Israeli officials said they were going to register a formal protest against Syria with the United Nations over Sunday's incidents.
No comments:
Post a Comment