RAMALLAH, Friday, February 12, 2021 (WAFA) – Two Palestinians were injured from military gunfire as Israeli forces today afternoon suppressed an anti-settlement rally in Beit Dajan village, east of Nablus city.

Member of the Popular Committee for Land Defense, Salim Abu Jaish, said that a large Israeli military force violently dispersed the participants of the rally called for to defend Palestinian-owned land threatened with confiscation, east of the village, to make room for Israeli colonial settlement construction.

Soldiers opened fire toward the participants, hitting one with a live round and another with a rubber-coated steel bullet in their feet. Both casualties were rushed to a hospital for treatment.

Dozens of participants were treated on the scene from the effects of tear gas suffocation.

Beit Dajan has become a scene for weekly protests against the Israeli authorities move to construct new colonial settlements and expand existing ones at the expense of Palestinian territory.

Located 12 kilometers to the east of Nablus city, Beit Dajan has a population of some 4,700 and occupies a total area of 44,100 dunams, including 360 donums of built-up area for the villagers. A large part of the village lands were seized for the construction of Al-Hamra and Mekhora (Mehola) colonial settlements, east and southeast of the village, in 1971 and 1973.

The village depends on grains plantation and fruitful trees, such as olive, figs and almonds.

K.F.