5 Palestinians injured in West Bank clashes

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH (AA) - Five Palestinians, including a photojournalist working with Anadolu Agency were injured after Israeli forces dispersed two rallies rejecting settlements building in the occupied West Bank.

"Israeli forces dispersed a weekly anti-settlement rally," Murad Shtewi, coordinator of the "Popular Resistance" committee in the town of Kafr Qaddum, north of the West Bank, told Anadolu Agency.

Shtewi said that four protesters, including a photojournalist were injured with rubber-coated metal bullets, while dozens of protesters suffered from suffocation due to inhaling tear gas.

For his part, a freelance photojournalist who works for Anadolu Agency, Nidal Shtayyeh, was hit with a metal bullet while he was covering the rally of Kafr Qaddum.

In Nilin town, Western Ramallah, the Israeli army used live and metal bullets to break up the marches, with protesters pelting stones at Israeli soldiers.

Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians who performed Friday prayers in the town of Kafel Haris, in the city of Salfit (north), were threatened with expropriation in favor of the Israeli settlement "Ariel".

After the prayer, the participants raised Palestinian flags, and chanted slogans condemning the settlement.

Israel occupied Jerusalem and the whole of the West Bank following the 1967 Six-Day War and began establishing settlements in the area in the following year.

*Bassel Ibrahim contributed to this report from Ankara