When you run into a minefield, there’s something that’s been known to happen: land mines go off. When scores of people charge at the border of a sovereign nation with Molotov cocktails and an assortment of other arms spotted in the crowd, another thing has been known to happen: the people on the other side of that border recognize a threat to their personal safety as well as their national sovereignty, and try to stop them.
Of course, the headline circling the globe at this point is “Israel fires on protesters,” plus a casualty estimate. As with the protests, rampages, and murders that followed the Muhammad cartoons, Pope Rage, and the Qur’an burning in Florida, the protesters are treated as though they have no free will, and Israel might as well have fired on a herd of peaceful gazelles galavanting through the Golan Heights.
This is another invasion, incited in part online, but also egged on by figures including the Palestinian Authority presidential adviser who called those who engage in these activities the “new Palestinian nuclear weapon.” “Syrian media: 18 killed, 277 hurt in Naksa border protest,” from Jerusalem Post, June 5:
Syria’s state news agency on Sunday reported that 18 people were killed and 277 injured along the Syria-Israel border in the Golan Heights near Majdal Shams, reportedly from IDF fire. The IDF spokesperson said that the only information it had on deaths on the border were Syrian reports and therefore, it could not confirm the number of people killed or if there were any deaths.
After several hours of clashes, IDF began allowing Red Cross teams access to the Syrian border area in order to evacuate wounded protesters, Channel 10 reported.
Two armed men were identified near the border fence in Kunetra, on the Syrian side of the border, the IDF Spokesman told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday afternoon.
There was no further official information about the identity of the gunmen, or their proximity to the border but a security official suggested that the men could be Syrian police or army forces
Prior to spotting the armed men, according to the IDF spokesperson, around 150 people managed to cross to the Syrian side of the fence, entering a mined zone between the two fences in the Majdal Shams area.
“We issued warnings for them to stop advancing. When they continued, we fired warning shots in the air,” an IDF spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post.
When the demonstrators continued toward the Israeli fence, they said, shots were fired at their lower bodies. “We know of 12 injuries,” she added.
A second demonstration was observed on the Syrian border in Kunetra, where 200 to 300 demonstrators amassed. Four land mines exploded in the area after Syrian rioters threw Molotov cocktails at IDF forces. The cocktails exploded in a field, starting a fire which then set off the mines on the Syrian side of the border. The IDF was unaware of the number of casualties caused by the explosions. Channel 2 reported that the IDF arrested three Syrian infiltrators attempting to cross the border into Israel at Kunetra.
IDF forces were sending Arabic-language messages through loudspeakers over the border, warning that anyone approaching the fence would be killed.
Syrian television also reported that demonstrators were attempting to breach the fence at several other points in the Golan Heights, Channel 2 reported….