130 Palestinians injured in West Bank clashes with Israeli soldiers: Medics

Ramallah, June 25

At least 130 Palestinian protesters were injured during the latest clashes with Israeli soldiers in several West Bank villages, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Among the injured were three shot by live ammunition and nine by rubber bullets, while the others inhaled teargas fired by Israeli soldiers, Xinhua news agency reported.

Fierce clashes broke out between anti-settlement protesters and Israeli soldiers in the villages of Beita and Beit Dajan, south and east of Nablus city, respectively, and in the village of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qaqilya city, said eyewitnesses.

The protesters burned tires and threw stones at the Israeli soldiers stationed on the perimeters of the villages, they added.

Murad Eshteiwi, coordinator of popular resistance in Kafr Qaddum village, told the news agency that the Israeli soldiers used rubber bullets, teargas and sound bombs to attack the Palestinian protesters rejecting the measures against their village.

The popular resistance in the village will continue until its full goals are achieved as part of the national aspiration to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories and establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, Eshteiwi noted.

Israeli authorities have not commented on the incidents yet.

Beita, Beit Dajan and Kafr Qaddum see weekly protests by Palestinians against the expansion of Israeli settlements.

Israel occupied the West Bank and Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

Ghassan Daghlas, in charge of Israeli settlement's affairs in the northern West Bank, said the Israeli army provides protection for the settlers to control the lands in Nablus' villages and try to expel the Palestinian owners. IANS

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