Injuries and arrests during confrontations in Ramallah, al-Khalil and Nablus
Violent confrontations have erupted on Thursday morning between the occupation forces and Palestinians, in different parts of the occupied West Bank.
In the north-east of the city of Ramallah, specifically in the town of Silwad, clashes took place between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youths from the town, on Thursday morning.
Eyewitnesses told PIC correspondent in Ramallah that Israeli soldiers fired during clashes live bullets towards school students who pelted Israeli soldiers with stones and empty bottles, noting that there were no casualties among the Palestinians.
In the city of al-Khalil, more than 20 people were injured at dawn on Thursday, including serious injuries, after clashes broke out in Yatta, south of the city.
Local sources said that Israeli forces stormed the area al-Shaaben in the town of Yatta, south of al-Khalil, where IOF fired heavily tear gas towards Palestinian citizens, which led to clashes, during which more than 20 people suffered from suffocation, including the child Mohammed Abu Qbita, 12, who was seriously injured by a gas bomb in his head.
The sources added that the clashes have lasted all the night until dawn.
Local sources said that the Israeli occupation forces arrested three youths in the town of Beit Ummar, Taha Abu Maria, 14, Jihad Nasser Akhalil, 16, Ahmed Ayman Akhalil, 16.
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces stormed at dawn today, the city of Nablus in northern West Bank, to protect the Israeli settlers who came to Youssef Tomb in the city to perform Talmudic rituals.
Eyewitnesses said that dozens of military vehicles accompanied the Israeli buses and cars carrying hundreds of Israeli settlers who came to visit Youssef’s Tomb, east of the city.
The same sources added that the clashes erupted in the area between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers who fired tear gas, resulting in a number of suffocation cases. Palestinians threw stones and empty bottles before the withdrawal of the Israeli troops and settlers in the early morning hours.
In the village of Urif southwest of Nablus, clashes have erupted between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers and settlers.
A member of the village council confirmed that settlers from the Yitzhar settlement established on the lands of the village and neighboring villages, attacked citizens in the southern side of the village near the village’s high school, pointing out that the students happened to be returning to their homes.
He stressed that the Israeli soldiers came to protect the settlers who stormed the village and started firing stun grenades and tear gas towards the citizens.
Israeli settlers have repeatedly stormed the Tomb which was an Islamic mosque built over a tomb of an Islamic Sheikh named Youssef Dweikat from the town of Balata. It was seized by Israeli settlers just after the occupation of the West Bank in 1967 under the pretext that it contains Tomb of Prophet Youssef.
