NABLUS, April 28, 2017 (WAFA) – Clashes Friday erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters across the West Bank as protesters marched in solidarity with hunger-striking detainees, who entered their 12th day without food.
Palestinians gathered for weekly Friday prayer at many solidarity tents that were set up across various West Bank cities, town and villages before they marched to nearby military checkpoints and clashes with Israelis soldiers.
In a statement issued the last week, the Fatah movement pronounced Friday to be a “day of rage” and urged the Palestinian people to “clash with the occupier everywhere across our homeland” to express solidarity with some 1,800 detainees on hunger strike in Israeli jails.
In the northern West Bank, hundreds of Palestinians performed Friday prayer at Al-Naqoura village junction, northwest of Nablus city.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement construction activities in northern West Bank, said Israeli forces tear gas canisters, stun grenades at protesters, setting fire to some nearby farmlands.
Similar clashes broke out at the western entrance of Beita village, south of Nablus.
Israeli troops firing tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian protesters, who reportedly hurled stones at troops.
Over ten Palestinians, including women and children, suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation.
Similar marches were organized in Jenin city and the Jenin-district villages of Jaba‘, Yaabad and Kafr Ra‘i in the northern West Bank.
In Qalqiliya district, Palestinian protesters clashes with Israeli troops near the Israeli checkpoint at the southern entrance to Qalqiliya city and at the entrance of Kafr Qaddum village, east of the city.
Israeli troops showered protesters with tear gas canisters, causing many to suffocate.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces opened fire towards a demonstration in Nabi Saleh village, northwest of Ramallah, hitting and injuring a protester with a live round in the head.
Elsewhere in Ramallah district, scores of Palestinians suffocated during similar clashes with Israeli soldiers near Ofer military prison, west of Ramallah, and at the western entrance to Silwad town, east of the city.
In Bethlehem, following Friday prayer, protesters marched from a solidarity tent in al-Azzeh refugee camp, north of the city, to the northern entrance of the city.
Expecting their arrival, soldiers fired a barrage of tear gas canisters and stun grenades, causing a number of protestors to suffocate.
Similar confrontations erupted following a solidarity march in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, in the southern West Bank.
Local activist Mohammad Awad said Israeli troops opened fire at protestors, causing a number to suffocate from excessive tear gas inhalation.
Some 1,800 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel have joined a hunger strike led by senior Fatah official Marwan Barghouthi since April 17 to protest the torture, ill-treatment and medical neglect of detainees by Israeli Prison Service (IPS) as well as Israel’s policy of administrative detention, internment without trial or charges.
K.F.
