Israeli military forces have shot and injured a dozen Palestinians across West Bank as tensions continue to rise in the occupied territories over US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital and relocation of the US embassy to the occupied city.
According to a statement released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health on Monday, four Palestinians were injured overnight by bullets from Israeli forces near the village of Deir Abu Mash'al, located 24 kilometers (15 miles) west of Ramallah.
The ministry added that the injured Palestinians were transported to Martyr Yasser Arafat Hospital in the central West Bank city of Salfit. One of them was later taken to the An-Najah National University Hospital in Nablus due to the severity of the gunshot wound in his thigh.
On October 26, a Palestinian man was killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the village of al-Mazra'a al-Qibliya.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported at the time that nine people had been shot with live bullets, and two had been badly injured.
On December 21 last year, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution that calls on the US to withdraw its controversial policy shift.
Despite the vote, the US went ahead with the embassy transfer on May 14, triggering demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Morocco and other Muslim countries.
Israel’s crackdown in Gaza left over 60 protesters dead in the impoverished coastal enclave on that day alone.
Angered by Trump’s move, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas boycotted his administration, saying Washington is no longer qualified to serve as the sole mediator in the decades-long conflict with Israel.
8 Palestinians hurt as Israeli settlers, forces attack homes near Nablus
Meanwhile, eight Palestinians have been injured and several more suffered tear gas inhalation following clashes with dozens of extremist settlers and Israeli military forces in the village of Urif, located 13 kilometers (8 miles) south of Nablus.
Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian Authority (PA) official in charge of monitoring Israeli settlement policy in the northern part of the West Bank, said Israeli forces stormed the village after locals confronted assailants from the Israeli settlement of Yitzhar.
Daghlas added that Israeli settlers sought to set an agricultural vehicle on fire.
The PRCS reported that eight Palestinians were shot and injured after Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets at them. More than 60 protesters suffered tear gas inhalation as well.
Settlers, mostly armed, regularly attack Palestinian villages and farms and set fire to their mosques, olive groves and other properties in the West Bank under the so-called “price tag” policy.
Price tag attacks are acts of vandalism and violence against Palestinians and their property as well as Islamic holy sites by Israeli settlers.
Israel has reportedly uprooted more than 800,000 olive trees in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1967.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank in 1967. This is while much of the international community considers the settler units illegal and subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.