RAMALLAH, June 13, 2015 (WAFA) - Two Palestinians were injured and many others suffocated by tear gas as Israeli forces clashed with Palestinians late Friday in the town of Silwad to the east of Ramallah, according to local sources.

Sources reported that Israeli soldiers raided several homes in the town, forced  residents out and took over their rooftops, turning them into military outposts to target residents.

Forces fired  tear gas canisters, stun grenades, and banned Toto bullets towards residents, injuring a Palestinian youth with a banned Toto bullet, while another sustained injuries after being hit with a stun grenade. Dozens other Palestinians suffered from suffocation due to tear gas inhalation.

Forces further targeted journalist attempting to cover the clashes as well as a civil defense vehicle while it attempted to to put out fire caused by tear gas canisters that exploded in a land near the scene of the clashes.

Forces fired a hail of tear gas bombs toward the civil defense vehicle and targeted journalists with stun grenades.

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 them.

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.”

As for Israel's continuous targeting of journalists, the Reliefweb website stated that, 'Tear gas canisters, which under Israeli law are meant to be shot from a safe distance in an upward arch so as not to endanger life, have also been shot directly at journalists from close range even when the journalists were out of the line of fire.'

In a story published in April 2015, it said that Israel’s Foreign Press Association (FPA) has issued numerous protests at the manhandling, harassment and shooting of both members of the foreign media and Palestinian journalists.

“The Foreign Press calls on the Israeli border police (a paramilitary unit) to put an immediate end to a wave of attacks on journalists. In just over a week, border police officers have carried out at least four attacks on journalists working for international media organisations, injuring reporters and damaging expensive equipment. These attacks all appear to have been unprovoked,” was one of many statements released by the FBA last year.

Meanwhile,  in a statement on the increase in violence by Israeli security forces against Palestinian journalists released last year, Reporters Without Borders expressed grave concern about 'the marked increase in the number of Palestinian journalists being deliberately targeted by the Israeli security forces.'

“We reiterate our call to the Israeli authorities, especially the military, to respect the physical integrity of journalists covering demonstrations and we remind them that the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on 28 March recognizing the importance of media coverage of protests and condemning any attacks or violence against the journalists covering them,” said the statement.

Around 17 journalists were killed and 30 others were wounded during the third Israeli offensive on Gaza in the summer of 2014. Homes of  journalists and several media outlets were also targeted and destroyed.

“The crime of targeting Palestinian journalists and media outlets in Gaza will never go unpunished”, stressed the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate (PJS’) statement which came to mark the International Day to End Immunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI) on November 2.

T.R.