United Nations calls for calm on Lebanese border

UNIFIL peacekeepers urge "maximum restraint" after four reported dead on Israel-Lebanon border during Nakba Day protests.

nakba day protests_311 (photo credit: REUTERS/Ammar Awad )
nakba day protests_311
(photo credit: REUTERS/Ammar Awad )
UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) urged the parties involved in a shooting incident on Sunday at the Lebanese-Israeli border to show "maximum restraint" to prevent casualties.
Spokesman Andrea Tenenti said UNIFIL was in contact with the Lebanese army and the Israeli military. Security sources said four people had been killed after Israeli forces fired in the air to repel Palestinians demonstrating at Maroun a-Ras on the border.
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"Hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinians approached the fence at Maroun a-Ras. The Lebanese army did not stop them. When IDF saw them attempting to destroy the fence, they took steps to stop them," Brig.-Gen. Yoav "Poli" Mordechai told Channel 10 News.
Also on Sunday, several dozen pro-Palestinian protesters crossed the Syrian border into the Golan Heights, an act Mordechai called "an Iranian provocation." Sources reported between two to four Syrians dead and 10-20 people injured in those ensuing clashes.