Grief and anger as Palestinians bury Nakba dead

Grief mixed with anger in Ain el-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, as mourners on Monday buried protesters killed during Nakba day commemorations. More than a dozen Palestinians were killed and about 360 wounded on Sunday when Israeli troops along the borders with Lebanon, Syria and the northern Gaza Strip opened fire on the protesters to prevent them from crossing over.
The Palestinians were marking Nakba (catastrophe) day, which commemorates the dispersal of an estimated 800,000 Palestinians to refugee camps in the region during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. Ain el-Hilweh's mourners vowed to continue their struggle for the right to return home and to avenge Sunday's deaths.
"We will not let this massacre pass without a punishment," said Munir Makdah, a leader of the Fatah movement at Ain el-Hilweh, the largest of the more than 12 Palestinian camps in Lebanon, located at the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon. "The Zionist entity has to know that the Palestinians will keep demonstrating until we win back our right of return to our homes and our lands," he told dpa.
Haythem Ghandour, a doctor who treated some of the wounded, told that most of the victims had received gunshot wounds to their shoulders, head, chest and back. Shops and businesses were closed Monday inside Ain al-Hilweh as the residents observed a day of mourning. Funerals were held in the Palestinian refugee camps of al-Bass, Burj al-Shemali, Mieh Mieh and Ain al-Hilweh, all located in southern Lebanon, which is largely controlled by Hezbollah.
"Today, we are observing a general strike in all camps across Lebanon," Makdah said. Near the mosque at the entrance of Ain el-Hilweh, hundreds of people clad in black were preparing to attend the funeral for Mahmoud Salem, 17, who died during the protests on Sunday. "My son was killed as he was raising the Palestinian flag - he is one of the many martyrs of Palestine," said Salem's mother.
The crowd grew angry when several Israeli planes hovered near the camp as the funeral procession was getting underway. "Death to Israel ... Palestine we are coming," they chanted as they raised their fists in the air. In Maroun Al-Ras, a village in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, thousands of Palestinians had gathered Sunday and threw stones at the other side of the fence. Israeli troops, backed by military vehicles, opened fire on the protesters.
Sunday's attack has drawn widespread condemnation in Lebanon, with caretaker prime minister Saad Hariri, an ally of the United States, describing the shootings as "blatant aggression." The United Nations co-ordinator in Lebanon, Michael Williams, said the unrest was the most serious at the border zone since the 2006 war. "I deplore and deeply regret the loss of life ... I urge all parties to exercise the utmost restraint and to fully respect Security Council Resolution 1701," which ended the 2006 war, he said.
Lebanon on Monday filed an official complaint with the UN Security Council against Israel following its "killing and wounding of civilians rallying in the town of Maroun Al-Ras near the Israeli border," the Lebanese National News Agency reported. According to the report, the complaint said "Lebanon considered the assault as a hostile act," and "Israel violated Lebanese sovereignty and disregarded UN resolutions."
What happened on Sunday in Maroun Al-Ras is a "clear message to Israel that no matter what oppression you exercise against our people, we will continue to fight you and refuse to recognise your state," Makdah said. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah praised the Palestinians who demonstrated at the Lebanese border on Nakba day. "We must bow before the courage, the bravery, of those who protested yesterday at Lebanon and Syria's borders with occupied Palestine," Nasrallah said Monday.