QALQILIA, January 17, 2025 (WAFA) - Israeli forces suppressed on Friday the weekly anti-colonial-settlement march in Kafr Qaddoum village north of Qalqilia, according to local sources.

Israeli occupation forces stationed at the eastern part of the village attacked the march with live bullets, tear gas canisters and stun grenades, however, no injuries were reported.

Demonstrators also rally to protest Israel’s closure of the main road that connects the village of Kafr Qaddoum with the city of Nablus, since 2003.

Before 2003, the residents of Kufr Qaddum would use a shorter road to the east in order to come and go to nearby cities and villages. However, as the settlements expanded so that they overwhelmed the road, it became closed for Palestinian use, said the Addameer Human Rights Association.

The only alternative road is roughly six times longer than the previous route, disrupting the villagers’ ability to attend university, their jobs and other vital aspects of their economic and social well-being, noted Addameer.

Although Kufr Qaddum’s Popular Resistance Committee took their case to the Israeli High Court in 2003, the legal status of the road remains unchanged, stressed Addameer.

After all legal appeals failed, villagers decided to organize weekly peaceful demonstrations in July 2011, a step that was met with violent suppression by Israeli forces.

T.R.