QALQILIA, Friday, June 19, 2020 (WAFA) – At least 15 Palestinians were injured by Israeli occupation forces today during the weekly protest against Israeli settlements, which takes place every Friday in the village of Kafr Qaddum in the northern West Bank, local sources said.

Morad Shtewi, an official in charge of the popular resistance file in the village, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated rounds and teargas at the protesters, injuring 15 of them by rubber-coated rounds. Others also sustained suffocation from gas inhalation.

The injured were treated at the scene by local medics.

Mahmoud al-Aloul, Deputy Chairman of ruling Fatah Movement, who participated in the protest, said the protest was a message that all the Palestinian people and their leadership are united in rejecting the Israeli annexation plan, as well as in their struggle for independence and statehood.

For many years, villagers from Kafr Qaddum and neighboring villages have been protesting every Friday against illegal Israeli settlements, as well as to call on Israeli authorities to reopen the village’s main road, which has been sealed off by the occupation authorities since 2002.

M.N