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West Bank districts experience 'Day of Rage' in solidarity with hunger strikers

Israeli forces fired dozens of tear-gas bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinians while youths threw rocks at armed forces.

April 29, 2017 at 5:19 pm

Widespread clashes erupted across the occupied West Bank on Friday, with several Palestinians being injured, after the Fatah movement called for a Day of Rage in support of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners who entered the 12th day of a mass hunger strike.

Israeli forces heavily fired tear-gas bombs, rubber-coated steel bullets, and live fire during the clashes, which broke out following Friday prayers in cities, villages, and refugee camps in various districts of the West Bank.  The Israeli army told Ma’an that some 2,000 Palestinians participated in “violent riots in several locations throughout the day,” adding that Israeli forces had responded to the “riots” with “crowd control means.”

Ramallah

Several Palestinian youth were injured while dozens others suffered from severe tear-gas inhalation during clashes across the Ramallah district.

A march set off from Nabi Saleh village in northwestern Ramallah in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinians. Israeli forces opened live fire and tear gas canisters on the protesters, injuring three Palestinians.

Locals in Nabi Saleh told Ma’an that Israeli forces were firing the once-banned “tutu” ammunition on protesters, which explode once they come in contact with the body. Sources from the Palestinian Red Crescent said that one youth was injured in the head with a tear gas canister, while two others were injured in the legs with tutu bullets.

Dozens of Palestinians suffered from severe tear-gas inhalation during clashes that erupted between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers near the Ofer prison in western Ramallah and at the northern entrance of Silwad in eastern Ramallah. Witnesses said that three Palestinians were injured with rubber-coated bullets. In Silwad, a Palestinian was injured with live fire in the leg, while tens of others suffered from tear gas inhalation, as Israeli forces fired live bullets, rubber bullets, sound bombs, and tear gas canisters after violent clashes broke out in the area.

At the Qalandiya checkpoint, which connects Ramallah with occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces suppressed a solidarity march, leaving two Palestinians injured with live ammunition shrapnel, while one was injured with a rubber-coated steel bullet, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Nablus

Clashes erupted at the Beita crossroads south of Nablus city in the northern West Bank following Friday prayers, in which hundreds of Palestinian worshipers took part in solidarity with hunger-striking prisoners.

Israeli forces fired dozens of tear-gas bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinians while youths threw rocks at armed forces.

More than ten Palestinians suffered from severe tear-gas inhalation while one youth was injured with a rubber-coated steel bullet, according to witnesses. Among those who suffered tear-gas inhalation was a father of three prisoners, Hajj Ihsan Adili Abu Waddah. Secretary of the Fatah movement in Nablus Jihad Ramadan was injured with a stun grenade in the leg. The Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement that 20 Palestinians suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Several trees in the village of al-Naqura caught on fire from tear-gas bombs and stun grenades fired by Israeli soldiers.

Hebron

Israeli forces opened fire on a solidarity sit-in tent in the al-Arrub refugee camp in northern Hebron, causing clashes to erupt between locals and the armed forces.

Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli soldiers raided the center of the camp, with Palestinian youths throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers who fired tear-gas, causing several to suffer from suffocation. In the village of Beit Ummar in the north of Hebron, Israeli forces injured two Palestinians with live bullets and another with rubber-coated bullets after clashes broke out amid a solidarity march in the village. The solidarity march was launched in the village following Friday prayers and headed to the entrance of the village where Israeli forces had stationed themselves. According to witnesses, Israeli soldiers took over the roof tops of 10 Palestinian homes in the village and turned them into temporary military posts, where the witnesses said the soldiers shot tutu bullets, rubber-coated bullets, and live ammunition at Palestinians.

Israeli forces also sprayed wastewater at Palestinians before retreating from the village two hours after the clashes broke out, witnesses said.

Meanwhile, undercover Israeli forces dressed as Palestinian civilians detained five Palestinians while assaulting them near the Hebron governmental hospital during clashes that erupted in the area around the hospital, according to witnesses. Witnesses told Ma’an that clashes had erupted from Bab al-Zawiya area and reached the area of the Hebron governmental hospital. Israeli soldiers also fired a sound bomb at the hospital, causing the front glass door of the emergency section to shatter, witnesses said.