News / Palestine

Israeli soldiers attack Palestinian protesters in West Bank

Friday, 17 June 2016 6:01 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 17 June 2016 6:01 PM ]

Protesters take cover from smoke and flames as Israeli soldiers fire stun grenades and tear gas during clashes following a demonstration against Israeli settlements and the closing of al-Shuhada street on February 20, 2016 in the occupied West Bank city of al-Kalil (Hebron). (AFP photo)

Israeli forces have violently suppressed a weekly peaceful protest by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, leaving scores of people injured.

The Palestinian people staged a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Kafr Qaddum, west of Nablus city on Friday.

Dozens of Palestinians suffered suffocation as the Israeli soldiers suppressed the protest using tear gas.

Residents of Kafr Qaddum hold weekly protest rallies to express their anger at the illegal Israeli settlements as well as the construction of a separation wall that snakes across the occupied West Bank, isolating large swathes of Palestinian territories.

Over half a million Israelis live in more than 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. However, Tel Aviv has defied calls to stop the settlement expansions in the occupied territories.

The occupied territories have also witnessed heightened tensions since August 2015, when Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds in an alleged bid to change the status quo of the holy Muslim site.

At least 213 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces in what is regarded as the third Palestinian Intifada (uprising) since the beginning of last October.

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