QALQILIA, Friday, May 3, 2019 (WAFA) – Israeli forces on Friday injured seven Palestinian protesters by rubber-coated rounds as they quelled the weekly anti-settlements protest in the village of Kafr Qaddum, near Qalqilia city in the northern West Bank, local sources said.

Morad Shtewi, coordinator of the popular resistance in the village, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters by rubber-coated rounds, injuring seven of them, including a 15-year-old. The injured were treated at the scene.

Israeli soldiers also attacked journalists and photographers as well as raided several homes in the village during the protest, Shtewi added.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces quelled similar rallies that took place in the villages of Ni‘lin and Beit Sira, near Ramallah city. Several cases of suffocation from gas inhalation were reported, but with no reports of gunfire injuries. 

Almost every Friday, villagers from Kafr Qaddum and neighboring villages organize a nonviolent protest against illegal Israeli settlements, and to call on Israeli authorities to reopen the village’s main road, which has been sealed by the occupation authorities for 15 years.

M.N