RAMALLAH, March 29, 2017 (WAFA) – Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah endorsed on Wednesday the recommendations of the commission of inquiry into police crackdown against two protests in Ramallah and Bethlehem earlier this month, the government said.

Government spokesman Tareq Rishmawi said Hamdallah, also in his capacity as Interior Minister, accepted all the recommendations in the report and referred them and to the designated authorities for immediate follow up and implementation.

The commission of inquiry was formed at the instruction of President Mahmoud Abbas, and pursuant to the Prime Minister‘s decision on March 13 to investigate the events that took place at the Ramallah courts complex and the events in Bethlehem on March 12.

The commission had recommended punitive measures against police officers who used excessive violence against people protesting outside the Ramallah court against a trial that involved Basel Araj, who was assassinated by Israel a couple of days earlier in an operation in the center of Ramallah.

Several journalists covering the protest were also beaten and their cameras damaged or confiscated.

M.N./M.K.