MAROUN AL-RAS, Beirut (Reuters) - The Israeli army fired on a demonstration at a Lebanese border village on Sunday, killing 10 Palestinians marking the “catastrophe” of Israel’s founding in 1948, security sources and the Lebanese army said.
Israeli forces opened fire at similar demonstrations at its frontiers with Syria and Gaza, in the deadliest such confrontations in years, to repel protesting Palestinians.
The Lebanese army had at first fired in the air to prevent hundreds of protesters from amassing near the border.
“The protesters overcame the Lebanese army and marched towards the security fence and started throwing stones,” Reuters cameraman Ezzat Baltaji said from Maroun al-Ras village.
“I could see Israeli soldiers hidden among the trees. When there was shooting from the Israeli side, I could see protesters falling wounded,” he said.
Baltaji said he filmed three dead bodies, one of which had a bullet wound to the head and another in the chest.
The Israel army said the Lebanese army had also used live ammunition in an attempt to hold back crowds rushing the border fence. Israel said the incursions were a provocation inspired by Iran.
A Reuters picture showed a Palestinian protester using pruning shears in an apparent attempt to cut through the security fence.
The Lebanese army said 112 people had been wounded. Many were being treated at the Salah Ghandour hospital in the nearby village of Bint Jbeil, which was destroyed during the Israeli-Hezbollah war in 2006.
“I was standing there throwing stones when suddenly I felt the bullets in my legs,” a wounded Palestinian man said. “But I was not afraid and God willing, we are going to return.”
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced to leave their homes in the 1948 war that accompanied the founding of Israel.
Palestinians mourn the creation of the state of Israel on May 15 each year, mostly in West Bank and Gaza. This year, inspired by popular uprisings across the Arab world, they also organised demonstrations in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt at Israel’s frontiers.
There are about 427,000 registered Palestinian refugees in 12 refugee camps across Lebanon, according to the United Nations. Several of those wounded on Sunday were from the Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
LEBANESE GOVT CONDEMNS ATTACK
The incident near the Lebanese-Israeli border on Sunday was the deadliest since a cross-border clash between Lebanese and Israeli troops which killed a senior Israeli officer, two Lebanese soldiers and a Lebanese journalist in August.
Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati said: “The continued Israeli aggression on Lebanon affirms once again that this enemy cannot live and exist on Palestinian land except by killing, forced migration and endangering the region.”
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war in 2006, in which 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, were killed, and 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers, also died.
Hezbollah denounced Sunday’s shooting and the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon called for calm.
“Hezbollah condemns the Israeli aggression on unarmed civilians in Maroun al-Ras and in the Golan, which constitutes a dangerous violation of human rights,” said Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah.
“The resistance movement in Lebanon will continue to be an advocate for Palestinian national rights and calls on everyone to stand united in confronting Israeli occupation.”
UNIFIL Force Commander Major-General Alberto Asarta Cuevas called for “maximum restraint on all sides in order to prevent any further casualties.”
Writing by Yara Bayoumy in Beirut; editing by Andrew Roche
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