Ramallah: Dozens of Palestinian protesters were injured during clashes with Israeli soldiers in several West Bank towns and villages, the Palestine Red Crescent Society has said.
In a clash that took place on Friday, five were shot by live ammunition, four by rubber bullets, and dozens suffered from inhaling tear gas, Xinhua news agency reported citing the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
Dozens of anti-settlement demonstrators burned tyres and threw stones at the Israeli soldiers stationed on the outskirts of the villages, said eyewitnesses.
Meanwhile, Murad Ishteiwi, the Palestinian coordinator of the popular resistance in Qalqilya, told Xinhua that during the clashes in the Kafr Qaddum village, Israeli soldiers “had brutally suppressed the protesters by live ammunition and teargas”.
Israeli authorities have not given any comment on the incidents.
The clashes in several West Bank towns and villages broke out hours after 153 Palestinians were injured during clashes with the Israeli police on Friday morning at the compound of Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem.
Tension between Israel and the Palestinians has flared in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the past three weeks, mainly during the Muslims’ fasting month of Ramadan.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement that since January, 42 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, including women and children. In the meantime, 14 Israelis have been killed in a series of shooting attacks in Israel since March 22.
Palestinian factions, including the Fatah Party led by President Mahmoud Abbas and Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), condemned the current escalation of tension in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are claimed by the Palestinians, in the 1967 Middle East war.
(IANS)
