JORDAN VALLEY, Wednesday, April 03, 2019 (WAFA) - A number of Palestinians were hurt today after Israeli soldiers threw teargas grenades at them as they went on a nature hike in the northern Jordan Valley and seven were arrested, according to a local official.

Mutaz Bisharat, from the Toubas governorate, said the soldiers fired teargas canisters, stun grenades and attacked the Palestinian hikers as they walked a track that passes near an illegal Israeli settlement and arrested seven hikers, including two women.

The track starts from the Ein al-Hilweh area and goes through areas targeted by settlers on a daily basis.

"This hike is one of the activities called for by the nationalist forces in Toubas in order to emphasize the failure of the occupier’s schemes in the Jordan Valley and the settlers‘ attempts to seize the lands," said Bisharat.

Abdullah Abu Rahme, the director general of the Popular Action Department in the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority, said that this area comes under daily attacks by the settlers protected by the Israeli soldiers, stressing that the track they took was to emphasize their attachment to the land and to support the Palestinian residents of that area.

M.K.