Ramallah, June 18 (RHC)-- Israeli forces have violently suppressed a weekly peaceful protest by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, leaving scores of people injured. Palestinians staged a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Kafr Qaddum, west of Nablus city on Friday. Dozens of Palestinians suffered suffocation as the Israeli soldiers used tear gas against the protesters.

Residents of Kafr Qaddum hold weekly protest rallies to express their anger at 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. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. However, Tel Aviv has defied calls to stop the settlement expansions in the occupied territories.