The Israeli army said yesterday that 10 people had been killed during Sunday’s Naksa Day protests along the Syrian ceasefire line, describing Damascus’s toll of 23 as “exaggerated.”

Israeli leaders accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of encouraging the unrest to divert attention from his crackdown on domestic protests, while Damascus accused Israel of “flagrant aggression.”

The US said it was “deeply troubled” by the violence on the Golan and condemned Syria.

“We condemn what appears to be an effort by the Syrian government to incite events and draw attention away from its own internal issues,” said State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

“Israel, like any sovereign nation, has a right to defend itself.”

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged a “measured and proportionate response” from Israel and called on Syria to refrain from “provocative actions” following the Golan violence.

Troops in the Golan Heights remained on high alert after Sunday’s bloodshed which Syrian state TV said killed 23 people and wounded 350 when Israeli troops shot at protesters marking the anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War.

Israel’s military said it counted 10 protesters dead – none of whom was killed by Israeli fire.

“We are aware that around 10 of the casualties that the Syrians reported yesterday were killed by the fact that they used Molotov cocktails in the Quneitra area that hit some Syrian landmines,” Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovitz said.

“I think there is solid ground to believe that (the Syrian figures) are exaggerated,” she said. “A big number of them died as a result of their own deeds.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops used live fire as a last resort.

“We used many varied non-lethal means and the firing was a last resort after all other options had been used,” the premier told reporters in Parliament.

Mr Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak accused Mr Assad of trying to divert attention from his domestic problems.