Ahmadinejad: Israel is Cancer that Must be Removed

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad branded Israel a cancer cell that must be removed Sunday, after Israeli gunfire killed 12 people and wounded hundreds as Palestinians marched in a mass show of mourning over the creation of the Jewish state.

"On the anniversary of this regime, people demonstrated in various places, but there were dead and wounded and this regime once again showed its real nature," he said in a television interview.

"Like a cancer cell that spreads through the body, this regime infects any region. It must be removed from the body," he added.

His statement came after earlier calls for Israel to be wiped out.

Palestinians on Sunday marched on Israel's borders with Lebanon, Syria and Gaza to mark the anniversary.

Tensions along the Israeli-Syrian frontier spiraled as thousands of protesters from Syria tried to force their way onto the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, prompting the army to open fire in one of the worst such incidents there since a 1974 truce accord.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Israel would protect its borders faced with those who sought its destruction.

More than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated now to number 4.8 million with their descendants -- were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict that accompanied the Jewish state's foundation.

Figures from the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees show there are one million refugees in the Gaza Strip, 750,000 in the West Bank, two million in Jordan, 475,000 in Syria and 400,000 in Lebanon.