Deaths reported as Israeli troops open fire

At least 20 reportedly killed along Syrian frontier during pro-Palestinian rally marking “Day of Defeat” in 1967 war.

Syrian state TV says at least 20 people have died and 220 more wounded after Israeli forces opened fire along the frontier to disperse pro-Palestinian demonstrators attempting to breach the border.

The reported deaths, including that of a 12-year-old boy, occurred as the protesters marching from the Golan Heights approached the border on Sunday, a day observed as “Naksa Day” or “Day of Defeat”, marking the 44th anniversary of the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the area.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from occupied Jerusalem, said Israeli forces opened fire in the air, but made no comment on any casualties.

“Although Syrian television is reporting casualties, there is no way of verifying it at this stage,” he said.
 
“But we have seen this advance of a large number of protesters who managed to breach one line of razor wire and then effectively got positioned in the centre of it all in a trench area.”

Protesters, most of them young men, eventually managed to cut through coils of barbed wire marking the frontier, entering a buffer zone and crawling towards a second fence guarded by Israeli troops.

Every so often, demonstrators were seen evacuating a dead or wounded protester.

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