RAMALLAH, December 9, 2011 (WAFA) - Mustafa Tamimi, 28, was hit in the face Friday by a tear gas canister and severely injured during the weekly protest in the Ramallah-area village of Nabi Saleh, according to activists.

Tamimi was evacuated to Belinson hospital in Israel. His condition was described as serious.

A photo taken at the scene showed Tamimi at a distance of less than 10 meters behind the semi-open door of an army jeep with the gun aimed directly at him. Clearly visible in the photo is also the tear-gas projectile flying in his direction.

Dozens of Palestinian, Israeli and international activists gathered at Nabi Saleh for the weekly demonstration in the village, protesting takeover of village land by an adjacent Jewish settlement of Halamish, built on Nabi Saleh land.

After the army dispersed the peaceful march, minor clashes erupted followed by a severe response by Israeli forces. Several people were hit with rubber-coated bullets and directly shot tear gas projectiles. Three were evacuated to the Ramallah hospital for further treatment. One protester was arrested, said the activists.

The demonstrations, which have been held regularly for the past two years have seen hundreds of injuries to protesters by Israeli forces as well as dozens of arrests.

Late in 2009, settlers began gradually taking over the village’s water spring, Ein al-Qaws, provoking strong protest by village residents. The settlers, abetted by the army, erected a shed over the spring, renamed it Maayan Meir, after a late settler, and began driving away Palestinians who came to use the spring by force - at times throwing stones or even pointing guns at them, threatening to shoot.

While residents of Nabi Saleh have already endured decades of continuous land grab and expulsion to allow for the ever continuing expansion of the Halamish settlement, the takeover of the spring served as the last straw that lead to the beginning of the village’s grassroots protest campaign of weekly demonstrations in demand for the return of their lands.

While the model of regularly held protests around the construction of Israel’s Separation Barrier became a common one in recent years, the protests in Nabi Saleh mark a significant break from that tradition, in that protest there is entirely unrelated to the Barrier.

At another location and organized by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in the Ramallah-area village of Bil'in, and with the participation of a Belgian delegation, dozens of Palestinian, international and Israeli peace activists held their weekly march in Bil’in after the Friday prayer to protest the construction of the Barrier of their village land.

The march began from the center of the village heading to the land which was liberated five months ago when an Israeli court ordered to move the Barrier further away from the village land.

Participants raised Palestinian flags chanted the national slogans, but upon arrival of participants near the barbed wire, they began to remove it.

Israeli soldiers in the area situated behind the concrete wall shot rubber bullets, stun grenades, tear gas and sprayed skunk water towards the participants, which caused injury to dozens who suffered from asphyxiation. Some of the participants threw stones at the soldiers.

Ambulance crews treated the wounded in the field.

M.S.