Up to 12 people were killed and dozens injured on Sunday as violence erupted on three points along the Israeli border as Arab protesters commemorated their mass displacement in the foundation of Israel.
In the most serious incident, the Israeli military said thousands of protesters approached Syria's border with the Israeli-controlled 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.
"In Gaza there are about 500 people who have gathered on the border, at the Erez crossing into Gaza, right now," said CTV's Martin Seemungal from Jerusalem. "They've gone into what's called a buffer zone between Gaza and Israel and the Israelis opened fire -- with tank shells landing a few hundred yards away from protestors -- and automatic fire."
The protests mark what Palestinians call the 'nakba' or 'catastrophe' day on which Israel was formed in 1948.
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.
Israeli 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 Assad.
"The Syrian regime is intentionally attempting to divert international attention away from the brutal crackdown of their own citizens to incite against Israel," said Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman. Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war.
In Egypt, the army set up at least 15 checkpoints -- guarded by tanks and armoured vehicles -- on the road between the Egyptian town of El-Arish and the Gaza border city of Rafah, turning back all who were not residents of the area.
The militant group Hamas, which has long sought to replace Israel with an Islamic state, issued a statement calling for an end to the "Zionist project" in Palestine, words that stand to undermine its recently improved relations with its political rival Fatah and other Palestinian groups.
"This is going to be very embarrassing," for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, said Seemungal. "He's been trying to package Hamas as an organization that's willing to talk peace, willing to perhaps moderate, and this statement is going to inflame things."
With files from Associated Press
