TULKARM, Tuesday, December 10, 2019 (WAFA) – Five Palestinian workers today morning were injured while dozens others suffered from suffocation after Israeli forces opened fire towards them to the west of Nazlat Issa village, located to the north of the West Bank city of Tulkarm.

Israeli forces opened fire towards a group of workers as they were attempting to cross the gate in Israel’s apartheid wall, located to the west of the village, to access their work, injuring at least five workers with bullets in their lower extremities and causing dozens others to suffocate.

The five casualties were rushed to the Thabet Government Hospital in Tulkarem, where medics confirmed their situation as moderate.

Thousands of Palestinian workers who queue before dawn every day to pass through Checkpoint 300 face extreme overcrowding and often wait for hours in line due to severe inspection procedures as every person must pass through metal turnstiles one-at-a-time.

Workers crowd into the cement and metal-barred walkway, push through turnstiles, pass a metal detector and show their IDs and permits to Israeli soldiers in order to travel to Israel for work.

Israeli severely restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement through a complex combination of approximately 100 fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, settler-only roads and various other physical obstructions.

Located almost 18 kilometers to the north of Tulkarem city, Nazlet Issa, has a population of some 2,400 and occupies a total area of 2,137 dunams.

Under the Oslo Accords, an agreement made 25 years ago that was supposed to last just five years towards a self-governing country alongside Israel, the Palestinian Authority was given ed control over a small pocket of land occupying 383 dunams, accounting for only 18 percent of the village’s total area.  In contrast, Israel maintains control over the remainder, classified as Area C.

Israel has seized at least 824 dunams belonging to the village for the construction of part of the apartheid wall, which strangles the village from the west and the north.

K.T./ K.F.