Mideast clashes add to regional turmoil - Hurriyet Daily News

class="articledateline" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 1.3em; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-weight: normal; padding-bottom: 5px; ">JERUSALEM – From wire dispatches

Israeli troops open fire to Arab protesters along three different borders, leaving at least 12 people dead and hundreds wounded in a mass show of mourning over the 1948 creation of Israel. Deadly clashes take place along Israel's nearby northern border with Lebanon, in the Gaza Strip as well as Syria's border with the Israeli- annexed Golan Heights

The violence came as Palestinians across the region marked the anniversary of the Israeli state's establishment in 1948, known in Arabic as the 'nakba' or 'catastrophe.'

Bloodshed broke out on Sunday as Palestinian refugees across the region marched on Israel's borders in a mass show of mourning over the 1948 creation of Israel.

In the most serious incident, the Israeli military said thousands of protesters approached Syria's border with the Israeli- annexed Golan Heights. It said hundreds of people burst through the border, and soldiers opened fire to stop them. Dozens were wounded and six were reported killed.

Deadly clashes also took place along Israel's nearby northern border with Lebanon, as well as in the Gaza Strip, near Israel's southern border.

Israeli gunfire killed at least four people on the border with Lebanon as thousands of mainly Palestinian refugees demonstrated along the tense frontier, according to a Lebanese security official.

Among numerous rallies and demonstrations to mark the anniversary, clashes also broke out between stone-throwing Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces in the occupied Palestinian territories, leaving nearly 80 injured.

In northern Gaza, more than 1,000 Palestinians marched on the Erez border crossing, prompting troops to open fire, wounding at least 61 people, most of them minors. Palestinian medics said two people were killed in a demonstration in the Gaza Strip near the heavily fortified border with Israel. Demonstrations were also reported in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Israeli TV channels broadcast scenes, taken from Arab stations, of what appeared to be thousands of people gathering along the Syrian border with the Golan, with large crowds throwing objects at the fence. Dozens of people could be seen cutting through the fence and storming across to the Israeli side.

As Israel's prime minister gathered his top advisers for an emergency meeting, officials accused Syria of fomenting the violence in an attempt to divert attention from the deadly crackdown on weeks of protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Further south, more than 5,000 demonstrators also held a mass rally in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which lies on the border with Egypt. They waved Palestinian flags and held up huge replica wooden keys to homes they fled or were expelled from during the Arab-Israeli war which accompanied the creation of Israel.

Since Friday, Palestinians and Arab Israelis staged a series of events in the run-up to Sunday's anniversary. In the southern city of Hebron, nine people were hit by rubber bullets fired by Israeli troops as an estimated 2,000 demonstrators held a protest, with clashes also reported in the nearby towns of Al-Arub, Beit Ummar and Bani Naim.

And eight Palestinians were hit by rubber bullets in heavy clashes near the Qalandiya crossing between the West Bank town of Ramallah and annexed east Jerusalem, where thousands gathered for a protest, medical sources said.

In Jerusalem, police arrested 13 people for disturbing the peace as clashes erupted in several locations across the eastern sector of the city, pitting stone-throwing youths against police and border police in riot gear.

For two days, stone-throwing youths and police have been locked in clashes across east Jerusalem, which turned deadly on Friday when a 16-year-old boy was shot in the stomach. He died early on Saturday, with a relative telling AFP he had been shot by a Jewish settler.

More than 760,000 Palestinians - estimated today to number 4.7 million with their descendants - were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict that accompanied Israel's foundation.

The violence came as Palestinians across the region marked the anniversary of the state's establishment in 1948, known in Arabic as the "nakba" or "catastrophe." Israel celebrated the 63rd anniversary on Tuesday, in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.

Compiled from AFP and AP reports by the Daily News staff.