SYRIA SAYS ISRAEL KILLS 14 STORMING GOLAN CEASEFIRE LINE

Israeli troops killed at least 14 people and wounded more than 100 on Sunday as protesters on Syria’s side stormed a ceasefire line on the occupied Golan Heights, Syria’s state-owned news agency SANA news said.

Israeli military said soldiers fired at demonstrators after warning them to back away from the fence which marks the ceasefire line along the Golan Heights.

“Despite numerous warnings, both verbal and later warning shots in the air, dozens of Syrians continue to approach the border and Israel Defense Forces were left with no choice but to open fire toward the feet of protesters in efforts to deter further actions,” an Israeli spokesman told Agence-France Presse.

Israel said that three protesters were killed.

Televised reports showed footage of Syrian and Palestinian youths trying to scale the fence as Israeli soldiers on top of a tank opened fire. “Three martyrs have fallen, including a child, and nine others have been wounded,” it said.

On the Israeli side, officials from the Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams shouted at the soldiers, calling on them to stop firing.

Meanwhile, the troops used loudspeakers to warn demonstrators in Arabic “anyone who comes close to the fence will be responsible for their own blood.”

Israeli troops opened fire as demonstrators began cutting through the first of two lines of barbed wire set up to try to prevent them from reaching a chain fence along the ceasefire line between the two countries.

Israel forces have been on high alert after activists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in Arab nations bordering the Jewish state called for protesters to march on Israeli checkpoints and border areas.

Sunday's protests, timed to coincide with the 44th anniversary of the Six-Day War, when Israel captured the Golan from Syria, are intended to be a repeat of massive demonstrations last month.

On May 15, thousands of protesters massed on Israel's borders with Syria and Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip, trying to force their way across on the anniversary of Israel's creation.

Palestinians mourn the occasion as a Nakba or “catastrophe” for the tens of thousands of Palestinians who fled their homes or were expelled in the fighting that followed Israel's declaration of independence.

At least 10 people were killed in the Nakba Day protests, when Israeli troops opened fire on demonstrators. But hundreds of people still managed to breach Israel's border with Syria, streaming into the occupied Golan Heights.

Israeli troops opened fire on demonstrators as they stormed the borders from Syria and Lebanon, leaving six dead on the Lebanese side of the border and four dead on the Syrian side.

In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees on Sunday staged a day of mourning for the 44th anniversary of Israel's sweeping defeat of Arab armies in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Lebanese and Palestinian activists had planned to protest at the border with Israel but Lebanon’s army banned any gatherings at the frontier, fearing a repeat of last month's violence on the anniversary of Israel's 1948 creation.

On Sunday, Israel's military and police were on high alert for a repeat as Palestinians mark the Nakba or “setback” of the Six Day War, in which Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza and the Golan Heights.

Ahead of the anniversary, the army deployed extra troops along the Lebanese border as well as along the ceasefire lines in the occupied Golan Heights.

Troops were also ramped up along Israel's frontier with the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, Israel's army radio said.

In the Gaza Strip, protesters gathered outside the northern town of Beit Hanun, but Hamas police prevented them from moving further north towards the Erez border crossing with Israel.

Israeli troops were seen this week reinforcing their side of the Lebanese border with new barbed wire.

Security sources said troops were also digging ditches in a bid to strengthen the border, and Israeli military radio reported that weekend leave had been cancelled for troops in potentially affected areas.

The measures came despite news Friday that the Lebanese army had issued a ban on all demonstrations along the border with Israel, forcing activists to apparently cancel their planned protests there.

Israeli police were also on high alert, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

“The Israeli police have also reinforced their positions, particularly in east Jerusalem and the north of the country,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he had ordered the army to act firmly but to avoid any bloodshed during any border protests.

“My instructions are clear: to act with restraint but with the determination necessary to protect our borders... and our citizens,” he told a hi-tech conference in Jerusalem on Thursday.

Mr. Netanyahu also said that he would discuss France’s peace initiative with the United States before deciding whether to agree to join a proposed peace conference in Paris.

The Palestinians have agreed to attend, putting pressure on Israel to do so, too.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe this week offered to host talks to discuss ideas for a Palestinian state raised last month by US President Barack Obama, aiming to avert a showdown at the United Nations in September.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has told France he is ready to attend a Paris peace conference if Israel accepts talks based on the 1967 borders, an aide told AFP Sunday.

Nimr Hammad, a political adviser to Mr. Abbas, said the president had told French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe that he agreed officially to a French proposal to host a peace conference in Paris before July.

Mr. Juppe raised the possibility of the conference during a visit to Israel and the West Bank this week.

Under the plan discussed with Juppe, “neither side would carry out unilateral actions,” Mr. Abbas said.

Mr. Netanyahu, who has yet to respond publicly to the French proposal, has rejected any withdrawal to the borders existing before Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war, insisting such a frontier would be “indefensible.”

(Sara Ghasemilee, a senior editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: [email protected]; Dina al-Shibeeb, also a senior editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: [email protected])