Abbas declared three days of mourning and ordered the crackdown on the massive pro-Palestinian marches
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday three days of mourning and ordered the deaths of 15 Palestinian demonstrators in clashes with Israeli soldiers massive refugee marches across five borders of Israel to demand the creation of a state.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the performance of the Army and said his country wants peace with a Palestinian state who wants to end the conflict, not to continue, in a clear reference to the recent reconciliation and political pact between Abbas and the radical anti-Israel group Hamas.
marches on Sunday, the date recalls the uprooting of more than 750,000 Palestinians by the creation of the State of Israel, in 1948, came amid dissatisfaction with the Abbas government stalled efforts to create a state Palestinian expressed publicly on numerous occasions.
marches initiative, which is unprecedented, also coincides with an Arab world, emboldened by a wave of protests that covers much of the Middle East.
Abbas, who West considers a "moderate" and that has long been in search of alternative ways to achieve a Palestinian state, today condemned the killing of demonstrators who tried to violate the borders of Israel from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
"Your blood will not be spilled in vain, because his blood was shed for freedom and the rights of our people," said Abbas.
flags on public buildings of the Palestinian West Bank region were collected up to half mast.
The Israeli army said on Sunday that the demonstrations were prompted by Iran with the help of regional allies: Syria, the Islamist group Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.
Abbas's government said it was a purely Palestinian initiative organized through Facebook by a group of activists, many of whom live in exile.
Authorities said at least 15 Palestinians, all refugees living in camps in southern Syria and Lebanon, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers. The Israeli army said it opened fire on "troublemakers" who violated the border and threw stones at soldiers.
Four of the deaths occurred in the Golan Heights, a territory occupied by Israel from Syria during the war Six Days, in 1967.
The White House yesterday supported the Israeli view that the facts were encouraged by Syria.
"We are deeply against the Syrian government's role in inciting the protests yesterday in the Golan Heights," said White House spokesman, Jay Carney.
"Such conduct is unacceptable and serves as distracting from the ongoing repression of the Syrian government demonstrations in their own country," Carney was quoted by CNN.
in Israel, and in a clear allusion to Hamas, Prime Minister Netanyahu told parliament that his country "can not make peace" with a government if it includes a group which, like the Palestinian Islamist movement aims at the destruction of Israel.
Netanyahu questioned the Palestinians' commitment to peace after the demonstrations and violence yesterday, and stressed that Hamas leaders call for end of the "Zionist enterprise."
The Israeli government also announced it planned to lodge a protest against Syria and Lebanon at the UN. In
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement Sunday that said he was "troubled" by violence and asked to avoid provocation, tension and civilian casualties.
yesterday agitation spread to Egypt, where police fired tear gas and shots into the air to disperse thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who protested against Israel's embassy in Cairo.
Protesters burned an Israeli flag, chanted anti-Israel and demanded the expulsion of Ambassador cries of the Jewish state.
Twenty people were arrested and 353 were injured in clashes with police, Egyptian officials said.
The Israeli army stepped up its presence in the North, having been taken by surprise Sunday, according to military admitted Jews.
Israel expected any unrest on the anniversary of exile focus on mass Palestinian West Bank, as in previous years.
The Golan Heights, hundreds of Palestinian refugees crossed the Syrian border and infiltrated the territory, which Israel annexed after the 1967 war in a move not recognized by the international community.
Four infiltrators were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.
limit in nearby Lebanon, at least 10 people were killed by fire from Israeli soldiers as they approached the border fence with Israel, Lebanon, officials said.
Another Palestinian, the fatality number 15, was fatally shot by an Israeli sniper when inattentive plant a bomb, Israeli military sources said.
In Jordan, the police clashed with Palestinians who tried to cross into Israel and said that 25 people, including 11 policemen Jordanians, were injured.
The outbreak of violence came at a critical moment for the peace process in the Middle East and in particular for the U.S. role, the main guarantor of all agreements signed.
George Mitchell, the Middle East envoy of President Barack Obama resigned Friday after more than two years of fruitless efforts, and the U.S. leader is scheduled to give a speech this week on the Middle East and receive Netanyahu at the White House .
In the absence of peace talks, Abbas plans to call a vote at the UN in September to recognize a Palestinian state, with or without prior agreement with Israel.
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