The violent Israeli action took place Friday during the Bilin weekly protest against the separation wall and the persisting settlement construction, leading scores of Palestinians to suffer from excessive tear gas inhalation.
Demonstrators marched through the village of Bilin, raising Palestinian flags and chanting songs for unity and in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention centers.
When protestors reached village lands near the separation wall, Israeli forces fired tear-gas and stun grenades at demonstrators.
The regime forces then chased Palestinian protestors through the olive groves, causing Rafik al-Khatib and his family, who were picking olives nearby, to suffer tear-gas inhalation, according to a Ma’an news report on Saturday.
Since 2005, according to the report, Bilin villagers have protested on a weekly basis against the Israeli separation wall that runs through their village on land confiscated from local farmers. Previous protests by Bilin activists have forced the Israeli authorities to re-route the wall, but large chunks of the village lands are still inaccessible to residents.
In Kafr Qaddum near Qalqiliya, meanwhile, Israeli forces dispersed demonstrators and subsequently declared the village a closed military zone.
Protests are held every Friday in Kafr Qaddum against the Tel Aviv regime’s closure of a main road linking the village to its nearest city, Nablus.
Israeli forces also detained media crews including the crew of Palestine TV until the demonstration ended. They also prevented international activists from entering the village in solidarity with protestors.
This is while the Palestinian city of Qalqiliya is almost completely surrounded by the Israeli separation wall, while checkpoints cut it off from most of the West Bank.
Two Palestinians were also injured in clashes that broke out near Ofer prison in Beitunia west of Ramallah. Three Israeli soldiers were also wounded in those clashes, which followed a Palestinian protest.
Israeli forces fired live bullets, rubber bullets, and tear gas at protesters, injuring one with a live bullet and another with a rubber bullet. Three Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded after being hit by rocks thrown by protestors.
Israeli forces chased protesters into the village, launching tear-gas grenades into Palestinian homes and neighborhoods.
Demonstrators there marched toward Israel's wall, raising Palestinian flags in solidarity with the Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque sits atop a site considered holy for Muslims as well as Jews. It is in East Jerusalem, part of the internationally recognized Palestinian territories, but has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.
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