RAMALLAH, Friday, April 15, 2022 (WAFA) – Three Palestinians Thursday evening and night sustained injuries and hundreds others suffocated in confrontations with Israeli forces across the West Bank, according to local sources and eyewitnesses.
They said that confrontations erupted with heavily-armed soldiers in Abwein village, north of Ramallah, as they stormed the main road leading to the nearby Sinjil village.
The soldiers opened gunfire to disperse protestors, hitting a boy by two live rounds in the hand and lower back and causing dozens to suffocate from tear gas.
The casualty was rushed to a hospital in Salfit for urgent treatment. The suffocation cases were treated at the scene.
Also in the central West Bank district of Ramallah, similar nighttime confrontations broke out at the northern entrance of al-Bireh, close to the colonial settlement of Beit El.
Israeli troops cracked down on protestors, injuring a youth by live ammunition and causing scores to suffocate from tear gas.
In the northern West Bank, Israeli forces quelled confrontations that erupted following the funeral procession of Fawaz Hamayel at the entrance of Beita town, south of Nablus.
Hamayel, a 45-year-old father of three, was shot in the chest by military gunfire on Wednesday and succumbed to his injuries the following day. He is the ninth Palestinian killed in Beita since the villagers started to rally weekly to defend their land against the construction of the colonial settlement outpost of Givat Eviatar in May last year.
The soldiers violently dispersed the protestors, causing seven to sustain injuries due to falling from high places after being chased by the soldiers and 35 others to suffocate from tear gas, as confirmed by Director of the Palestinian Red Crescent's (PRC) Emergency Department in Nablus, Ahmad Jibril.
Jibril added that the soldiers targeted a PRC ambulance with a tear gas canister and denied two others access to the town’s main entrance to evacuate casualties.
In the southern West Bank, the soldiers manning the checkpoint at the entrance of al-Shuhada Street in Hebron opened fire towards a rally, hitting a boy by rubber-coated steel bullets in the foot.
Dozens of suffocation cases were reported in a military crackdown on a similar rally at the entrances of al-Fawar refugee camp, north of Hebron, as well as Beit Einun village, northeast of the city.
Palestinians have been rallying against escalatory Israeli measures and attacks since the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, including police crackdown on Palestinian worshippers in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, encroachments upon the mosque compound and the killing of seven Palestinians since Wednesday morning.
K.F.
