RAMALLAH, April 29, 2011 (WAFA) – The Israeli army used excessive force Friday to break up several anti-barrier, anti-settlements protests in different areas of the West Bank.

This week’s protests had one common theme, and that was support for the reconciliation agreement reached between Fatah and Hamas in Cairo on Wednesday.

In Bilin, where the popular peaceful protests began six years ago against seizure of village land to build a barrier around Jewish settlements in the area, the Israeli army used force to break up the weekly Friday protest, according to witnesses.

One child was hurt when a tear gas hit him in the leg and many others suffered from tear gas inhalation, said village activists.

They said the protest started peacefully in the village with the participation of Israeli and international members of solidarity groups. The protestors marched through the village chanting pro-reconciliation slogans and ended up at the fence Israel is building to separate the village from most of its agricultural land.

Israeli soldiers at the fence showered the protestors with tear gas once they got near the fence, forcing them to disperse.

Similar protests occurred in nearby Nilin and in the village of Nabi Saleh. Protests also took place in al-Ma’sara, near Bethlehem, where the army also used force to disperse the protestors.

In the village of Beir Ummar, near Hebron, Israeli soldiers beat two people and threw tear gas inside their car when they approached the village main entrance of a main road linking Hebron to Bethlehem and often used by Jewish settlers.

The army had closed the village entrance for over a month as a punishment to the village residents and often uses force to keep cars from parking near it.

In Silwan, an East Jerusalem neighborhood, young Palestinian residents pelted Israeli police with rocks following the Friday prayers at the protest tent. The police fired back tear gas, which sometimes reached the crowded homes causing serious breathing problem for local residents, according to local activists.

Activists warned that Israel is getting ready to demolish more than 30 homes in Silwan’s Bustan area to make room for a Jewish park, and an Israeli court is going to discuss on Monday a suit by a Jewish settler asking to evict a Palestinian resident of Ras El-Amoud, from his home for the settlers to take it over.

M.A.