Israel-Palestine Breaking: Dozens of Palestinians in "Nakba Day" Demonstrations Injured by Israeli Troops (Al Jazeera English)

UPDATE 1620 GMT: The Associated Press says at least 12 pro-Palestinian protesters are dead and dozens wounded. Four were killed in clashes on the Syrian border --- Al Arabiya adds a report of 10 dead on the Lebanese front.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to act with "maximum restraint". He continued, "But nobody should be mistaken. We are determined to defend our borders and sovereignty."

UPDATE 1445 GMT: Reports claim eight to ten people have been killed today by Israeli forces. We are keeping close watch for confirmation.

UPDATE 1325 GMT: Al Jazeera English reports that Israeli troops opened fire on protesters near the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, killing at least four and injuring 10 to 20 others after some breached the Israeli border fence.

Between 400 and 1,000 people approached the fence in the Nakba Day protest. Majdal Shams is a Druze village on the Israeli side of the disputed Golan Heights and is separated from the Syrian border by the heavily-mined Ayn al-Tineh valley.

UPDATE 1320 GMT: A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, Brig.-Gen. Yoav "Poli" Mordechai, said the crossing of pro-Palestinian demonstrators from Syria into Israel was an "Iranian provocation": "The radical axis of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas is very clear."

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Al Jazeera English reports on serious incidents today on the Gaza border. There are also incoming reports of demonstrators wounded by Israeli fire on the Lebanese and Syrian borders.

Dozens of people have been injured in the Gaza Strip as thousands of Palestinians and activists marched to mark "Nakba Day", amid tight Israeli security.

A group of Palestinians, including children, were shot by the Israeli army after crossing a Hamas checkpoint and entering what Israel calls a "buffer zone" - an empty area between checkpoints where Israeli soldiers generally shoot trespassers, Al Jazeera correspondent Nicole Johnston reported from Gaza City.

Johnston said tank shelling and artillery fire were also heard from the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip.

Reports said at least 45 Palestinians were wounded in northern Gaza as Israeli troops opened fire on a march of at least 1,000 people heading towards the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

In south Tel Aviv, one Israeli man was killed and 17 were injured when a 22-year-old Arab Israeli driver drove his truck into a number of vehicles on one of the city's main roads.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the driver, from an Arab village called Kfar Qasim in the West Bank, was arrested at the scene and is being questioned.

"Based on the destruction and the damage at the scene, we have reason to believe that it was carried out deliberately," Rosenfeld said. He did not believe the motive was directly linked to the anniversary of the Nakba.

The Nakba, or "catastrophe", is how Palestinians refer to the 1948 founding of the state of Israel.

One of the biggest demonstrations was held near Qalandiya refugee camp and checkpoint, the main secured entry point into the West Bank from Israel, where about 100 protesters marched, Al Jazeera correspondent Nisreen El Shmayleh reported from Ramallah.

Some injuries were reported from tear gas canisters fired at protesters there, El Shmayleh said.

Small clashes were reported throughout various neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem and cities in the West Bank, between stone-throwing Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

Israeli police said 20 arrests were made in the East Jerusalem area of Issawiyah for throwing stones and petrol bombs at Israeli border police officers.

About 70 arrests have been made in East Jerusalem throughout the Nakba protests that began on Friday, two days ahead of the May 15 anniversary, police spokesman Rosenfeld said.

Tensions had risen a day earlier after a 17-year-old Palestinian boy died of a gunshot wound suffered amid clashes on Friday in Silwan, another East Jerusalem neighbourhood.

Police said the source of the gunfire was unclear and that police were investigating, while local sources told Al Jazeera that  Ayyash was shot in random firing of live ammunition by guards of Jewish settlers living in nearby Beit Yonatan.

Lebanon and Syria

About 20,000 people are expected to gather by the end of Sunday at Ras Maroun, a Lebanese border town.

Matthew Cassel, a journalist en route to Lebanon's southern border with Israel, tweeted that dozens of buses were departing Nahr al-Bared and Baddawi refugee camps in northern Lebanon. 

Some activists tweeted that the Lebanese and Jordanian authorities were prohibiting protesters from nearing the borders. The information could not be independently verified.

Israeli army radio said dozens were wounded in a shooting incident on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, an area bordering with Syria.

Palestinian refugees from Syrian side of the border were shot for trying to break through the frontier fence, the radio report said.

Israeli army spokepersons' office said an Israeli army patrol shot in the air in an effort to desist "people trying to cross into Israel and trying to damage the fence." There was no comment on reports of the injured.

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