The file photo shows Israeli soldiers escorting a handcuffed Palestinian teen into a military vehicle. (By Wafa news agency)
Ramallah, December 18 (RHC)-- Israeli forces have detained 10 Palestinians in multiple raids across the occupied West Bank and injured dozens of others in anti-settlement protests in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Palestine's official Wafa news agency said heavily-armed Israeli police on Friday rounded up five Palestinians, including three brothers, after forcibly entering their houses and assaulting their families in the Bab Huta neighborhood of the occupied Old City of East al-Quds.
The news agency said Israeli vehicles stormed Arraba town in the southwest of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, where the soldiers detained a woman after thoroughly searching her house. The Israeli soldiers were also reported to have forced their way into the nearby town of Silat ad-Dhahr, detaining a man.
In Nablus district, Wafa said its sources had confirmed an Israeli raid in Burqa town, north of the city, which had led to the detention of three others, including a father along with his son.
Citing medical sources, the official news agency also said Israeli forces injured at least 10 Palestinians in clashes with anti-land-pillage protesters in the villages of Beita and Beit Dajan, located in the south and east of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
Wafa said Israeli forces used “fatal violence” to disperse a rally in protest at the construction of the new settlement of Givat Eviatar on Jabal Sabih in the town of Beita, as well as the seizure of lands belonging to nearby villagers to inaugurate a new settler-only bypass road.
Ahmad Jibril, the director of the Palestinian Red Crescent's (PRC) Emergency Department in Nablus, said five protesters were hit by rubber-coated steel bullets and five others sustained injuries after being chased by the Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli forces were also reported to have attacked the participants of another rally held to defend Palestinian-owned land threatened with confiscation in the east of Beit Dajan, injuring five by rubber-coated steel bullets and causing 14 others to suffocate from tear gas.
Last week, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian and wounded 70 others in Beita during a protest against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Wafa also reported that several Palestinians sustained injuries on Friday as Israeli police quelled a solidarity sit-in in East al-Quds' Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which has become a scene of massive protests against the regime’s settler-colonialism in the occupied territories.
The news agency said that heavily-armed Israeli police barged their way into the neighborhood and cracked down on a sit-in in solidarity with the Salem family, who faces the imminent threat of forced expulsion from their house. The forces inflicted bruises and cuts across the bodies of several participants, with one of the casualties identified as Associated Press journalist named Mahmoud Illean, who sustained an eye injury.
