News / Palestine

Israeli forces shoot, injure six Palestinian youths in Gaza, West Bank

Saturday, 06 August 2016 6:28 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 06 August 2016 7:22 AM ]

Palestinian protesters carry an injured teenager during clashes with Israeli forces following a weekly demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kafr Qaddum, near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, July 1, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli military forces have reportedly shot and wounded six young Palestinian men during skirmishes in the blockaded Gaza Strip near the border with the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as the central part of West Bank.

Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said a 25-year-old man sustained critical gunshot wounds and another, 21, was moderately wounded when Palestinians clashed with Israeli soldiers east of Gaza City on Friday, Palestine al-Yawm news agency reported.

Qudra added that three young Palestinian men were also moderately wounded east of the Bureij refugee camp, also to the east of Gaza City.

Palestinians and Israeli forces also clashed near the Nahal Oz crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, but there were no reports of casualties.

Elsewhere in the northern West Bank town of Kafr Qaddum, dozens of Palestinian protesters suffered breathing difficulties as Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters besides stun grenades and live bullets to disperse the crowd.

Additionally, a journalist was injured on Friday when Israeli soldiers attacked a peaceful weekly protest in the town of Ni’lin, located 17 kilometers (11 miles) west of Ramallah.

The Palestinians were demonstrating against 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 Jerusalem al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. However, Tel Aviv has defied calls to stop the construction of more such settlements in the occupied territories.

The occupied territories have witnessed a fresh bout of tensions ever since Israeli forces introduced restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in August 2015.

More than 220 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces in the tensions since the beginning of last October. The violence has also killed at least 32 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.

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