Dozens of Anti-settlement Palestinian Protesters Injured In ‘Israeli’ Attacks

By Staff, Agencies

Nearly 170 Palestinians sustained injuries as ‘Israeli’ occupation forces attacked their anti-settlement protests near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

The violence broke out after the Friday prayers when the Zionist regime forces opened fire on Palestinians protesting against the construction of a settlement outpost on Jabal Sabih in the town of Beita, south of Nablus, according to Palestinian media.

Palestine's official Wafa news agency said 29 civilians were wounded with live and rubber-coated metal bullets, and dozens more suffocated with tear gas as the Zionist occupiers attacked the protest.

"168 injuries occurred during the confrontations with the occupation forces, including 5 with live bullets, 24 with rubber-coated metal bullets, while 132 others suffered from suffocation as a result of the ‘Israeli’ forces firing tear gas canisters, while seven others were injured," Ahmed Jibril, director of ambulance and emergency services at the Red Crescent in Nablus, told the Palestinian Maan news agency.

Locals told Maan that confrontations erupted in three locations with the occupation forces at the Beita Junction, Jabal Sabih, and the al-Houte area.

The sources added that the occupation forces used drones to drop tear gas canisters on Palestinians.

The Eviatar settlement outpost near Nablus has for the past two months become one of the focal points of confrontations between settlers backed by the occupation regime forces and the Palestinians.

At least five Palestinians were recently martyred by ‘Israeli’ troops’ fire as they protested the appropriation of more than five acres of their land - previously used for the cultivation of olives - for the construction of the illegal Zionist settlement of Eviatar.

The Zionist authorities have decided to turn Eviatar into a military base. But the Beita town residents have rejected the decision and pledged to continue their protests until the outpost is removed.

Tensions have reached boiling point as ‘Israeli’ settlers continue their expropriation of Palestinian land, in some cases refusing to evacuate land that Palestinians depend on for their livelihoods.

Villages in the occupied West Bank often hold Friday demonstrations against land confiscations, house demolitions, and Zionist settlements. ‘Israeli’ forces usually respond to the protests with disproportionate violence.

Elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territories on Friday, the Zionist occupation forces violently attacked Palestinian mourners attending the funeral of a young man martyred by the regime’s soldiers near the city of al-Khalil.