[News] Palestinians mark Nakba Day - Several killed and dozens wounded

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Palestinians killed in 'Nakba' clashes
Several killed and dozens wounded in Gaza, Golan Heights, Ras Maroun 
and West Bank, as Palestinians mark Nakba Day.

Last Modified: 15 May 2011 15:10
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/2011515649440342.html

Several people have been killed and scores of others wounded in the 
Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Ras Maroun in Lebanon and the 
Israeli-occupied West Bank, as Palestinians mark the "Nakba", or day 
of "catastrophe".

The "Nakba" is how Palestinians refer to the 1948 founding of the 
state of Israel, when an estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were 
expelled following Israel's declaration of statehood.

At least one Palestinian was killed and up to 80 others wounded in 
northern Gaza as Israeli troops opened fire on a march of at least 
1,000 people heading towards the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip 
and Israel.

A group of Palestinians, including children, marching to mark the 
"Nakba" were shot by the Israeli army after crossing a Hamas 
checkpoint and entering what Israel calls a "buffer zone" - an empty 
area between checkpoints where Israeli soldiers generally shoot 
trespassers, Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston reported from Gaza City on Sunday.

"We are just hearing that one person has been killed and about 80 
people have been injured," Johnston said.

"There are about 500-600 Palestinian youth gathered at the Erez 
border crossing point. They don't usually march as far as the border. 
There has been intermittent gunfire from the Israeli side for the 
last couple of hours.

"Hamas has asked us to leave; they are trying to move people away 
from the Israeli border. They say seeing so many people at the border 
indicates a shift in politics in the area."

Separately in south Tel Aviv, one Israeli man was killed and 17 were 
injured when a 22-year-old Arab Israeli driver drove his truck into a 
number of vehicles on one of the city's main roads.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the driver, from an 
Arab village called Kfar Qasim in the West Bank, was arrested at the 
scene and is being questioned.

"Based on the destruction and the damage at the scene, we have reason 
to believe that it was carried out deliberately," Rosenfeld said. But 
he said he did not believe the motive was directly linked to the 
anniversary of the Nakba.

West Bank clashes

One of the biggest Nakba demonstrations was held near Qalandiya 
refugee camp and checkpoint, the main secured entry point into the 
West Bank from Israel, where about 100 protesters marched, Al 
Jazeera's  Nisreen El-Shamayleh reported from Ramallah.

Some injuries were reported from tear gas canisters fired at 
protesters there, El-Shamayleh said.

Small clashes were reported throughout various neighbourhoods of East 
Jerusalem and cities in the West Bank, between stone-throwing 
Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

Israeli police said 20 arrests were made in the East Jerusalem area 
of Issawiyah for throwing stones and petrol bombs at Israeli border 
police officers.

About 70 arrests have been made in East Jerusalem throughout the 
Nakba protests that began on Friday, two days ahead of the May 15 
anniversary, police spokesman Rosenfeld said.

<http://english.aljazeera.net/photo_galleries/middleeast/20115141283124773.html>Tensions 
had risen a day earlier after a 17-year-old Palestinian boy died of a 
gunshot wound suffered amid clashes on Friday in Silwan, another East 
Jerusalem neighbourhood.

Police said the source of the gunfire was unclear and that police 
were investigating, while local sources told Al Jazeera that  the 
teen was shot in random firing of live ammunition by guards of Jewish 
settlers living in nearby Beit Yonatan.

'Palestinians killed'

Meanwhile, Syrian state television reported that Israeli forces 
killed four Syrian citizens who had been taking part in an 
anti-Israeli rally on the Syrian side of the Israeli-occupied Golan 
Heights border on Sunday.

Israeli army radio said earlier that dozens were wounded when 
Palestinian refugees from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights border 
were shot for trying to break through the frontier fence. There was 
no comment on reports of the injured.

There have also been reports that Israeli gunfire killed up to 10 
people and injured scores more in the Lebanese town of Ras Maroun, on 
the southern border with Israel.

Matthew Cassel, a journalist in the town, told Al Jazeera that he saw 
at least two dead Palestinian refugees.

"Tens of thousands of refugees marched to the border fence to demand 
their right to return where they were met by Israeli soldiers," he said.

"Many were killed. I don't know how many but I saw with my own eyes a 
number of unconscious and injured, and at least two dead.

"Now the Lebanese army has moved in, people are running back up the 
mountain to get away from the army."

'End to Zionist project'

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned Sunday's demonstrations.

"I regret that there are extremists among Israeli Arabs and in 
neighbouring countries who have turned the day on which the State of 
Israel was established, the day on which the Israeli democracy was 
established, into a day of incitement, violence and rage", Netanyahu 
said at the start of a cabinet meeting.

"There is no place for this, for denying the existence of the State 
of Israel. No to extremism and no to violence. The opposite is true", he said.

Earlier Sunday Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of Hamas-controlled 
Gaza, repeated the group's call for the end of the state of Israel.

Addressing Muslim worshippers in Gaza City on Sunday, Haniyeh said 
Palestinians marked this year's Nakba "with great hope of bringing to 
an end the Zionist project in Palestine".

"To achieve our goals in the liberation of our occupied land, we 
should have one leadership,'' Haniyeh
said, praising the recent unity deal with its rival, Fatah, the 
political organisation which controls the West Bank under Palestinian 
president Mahmoud Abbas' leadership.

Meanwhile, a 63 second-long siren rang midday in commemoration of the 
Nakba's 63rd anniversary.

Over 760,000 Palestinians - estimated today to number 4.7 million 
with their descendants - fled or were driven out of their homes in 
the conflict that followed Israel's creation.

Many took refuge in neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and 
elsewhere. Some continue to live in refugee camps.

About 160,000 Palestinians stayed behind in what is now Israeli 
territory and are known as Arab Israelis. They now total around 1.3 
million, or some 20 percent of Israel's population.




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