HEBRON, May 24, 2015 (WAFA) – Dozens of Palestinians Sunday suffered severe suffocation due to inhaling tear gas fired at them by Israeli forces in the town of Beit Ummar to the north of Hebron, according to a local activist.

Coordinator of the anti wall and settlement committee Mohammed Awad said that Israeli forces stormed the town and proceeded to fire tear gas canisters towards residents and their homes, causing dozens of suffocation cases among them.

Mariam Aby Aiyash, 60, and Rahaf Awad, 10, were among the injured. They both suffered severe suffocation after their homes were hit with tear gas canisters, which necessitated their transfer to hospital for treatment.

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.”

T.R.