Ramallah, September 30 (RHC)-- Dozens of Palestinians have sustained injuries when Israeli forces used tear gas and gunfire to disperse weekly anti-settlement rallies in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.  According to Palestinian media outlets, the rallies were staged on Friday in Beit Dajan village and the town of Kafr Qaddum which are located 10 kilometers east and 13 kilometers west of Nablus respectively.

Ahmad Jibril, the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Emergency and Ambulance Department in Nablus, said Israeli troops attacked protesters in Beit Dajan with rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas bombs, and stun grenades.  He added that the soldiers shot three Palestinians with tear gas canisters, one in the face and two others in the chest.
Jibril also said that Palestinian paramedics treated 21 people for the effects of tear gas inhalation.

Israeli forces also closed the Huwwara and Beit Furik military checkpoints near Nablus and prevented the Palestinians from crossing.  Separately, at least four Palestinians were shot and injured by Israeli forces’ rubber-coated steel bullets, as the occupation military suppressed the weekly anti-settlement demonstration in Kafr Qaddum.

One of the injured Palestinians was taken to a nearby hospital for medical treatment, while the rest were treated in the field.

The anti-settlement protests come as more than 700,000 Israelis live in over 280 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

The international community views the settlements – hundreds of which have been built across the West Bank since 1967 – as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions due to their construction on the occupied territories.

The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.