NABLUS, May 16, 2015 (WAFA) - Several
Palestinians Saturday were shot and injured with rubber-coated steel
bullets as Israeli forces forcefully suppressed a peaceful march at a checkpoint
to the south of Nablus marking the 67th anniversary of Nakba Day, Palestinian
catastrophe of 1948.
Witnesses told WAFA that Israeli forces
attacked the march with rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters, and
stun grenades, causing several injury cases among marchers. A journalist
working for a Chinese news agency, a female foreign activist, and Khaled
Mansour, member of the political bureau of the People's Party were among the
injured.
An increasing number of unarmed and peaceful
Palestinians were either killed or seriously injured as a result of Israel’s
constant use of tear gas against Palestinians.
Early December 2014, Palestinian minister
without portfolio Zeyad Abu Ein died due to tear gas inhalation and after being
directly hit in the chest by an Israeli soldier during a peaceful protest
marking the United Nations International Year of Solidarity with the
Palestinian People. He was transferred to hospital where he was pronounced dead
shortly afterwards.
On December 2011, Mustafa Tamimi, 28 from
Ramallah’s village of Nabi Saleh, died from critical wounds he sustained when
an Israeli soldier fired a tear gas canister directly at his head from a short
distance.
B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights information
center, stated that “[Israeli] soldiers and Border Police often fire tear-gas
grenades directly at demonstrators with the aim of hitting them, or fire
carelessly, without ensuring that demonstrators are not in the direct line of
fire, in direct contravention of regulations.”
The legal center, in a summary report published
in 2013, demanded that Israeli security forces “completely prohibit the firing
of 40mm tear-gas canisters either directly at individuals or horizontally, in a
way that could cause result in injuries.”
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers stationed at the
borderline area to the east of Khan Younis in Southern Gaza, opened fire toward
a similar march organized late Friday to mark Nakba Day, shooting and
injuring a Palestinian youth in his foot.
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