19 Palestinians injured by Israeli army across West Bank

By Mohammad Ghefari

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – At least 19 Palestinians were injured and dozens of others suffered tear gas inhalation as the Israeli forces forcibly dispersed several anti-settlement rallies across the occupied West Bank on Friday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s emergency director in Nablus city, northern West Bank, Ahmed Jebril, said 11 Palestinians were injured by Israeli rubber bullets, and 17 others suffered tear gas inhalation in clashes on the Sbeih Mount, near Beita village, south of Nablus city.

He added medical teams also treated seven people hit with Israeli rubber bullets and 12 suffering tear gas suffocation in Beit Dajan village, east of Nablus city.

In the village of Beita, a video showed an Israeli drone firing tear gas canisters.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation network said the drone fell down due to a technical failure.

In the village of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya, the coordinator of the Popular Resistance Committees in the village, Murad Eshteiwi, told Anadolu Agency that the Israeli army fired live bullets, rubber-coated metal bullets, and tear gas canisters after the weekly Friday prayers to disperse an anti-settlement rally in the village.

He added that one Palestinian child was hit in his leg with a rubber-coated bullet.

Meanwhile, in the southern occupied West Bank, clashes erupted between Palestinians and the Israeli army following the Friday prayer in the Bab al-Zawiya area, central Hebron city, where dozens were treated for suffocation caused by Israeli tear gas canisters.

Every Friday, Palestinians organize marches against settlements and the separation wall in a number of villages and towns in the West Bank.

Israeli and Palestinian estimates indicate that there are about 650,000 settlers in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, who live in 164 settlements and 116 outposts.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara