- Palestine
- May 30, 2010
- 3 minutes read
IOF soldiers attack anti-wall marches in W. Bank villages, protestors in J’lem
RAMALLAH, — The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked on Friday as usual several peaceful weekly protests against the segregation wall in different West Bank cities, and one march organized against the policy of Judaization in occupied Jerusalem.
In Bil’in village, protester Mustafa Al Khateeb, 18, was hit with a tear gas bomb in his back and many others suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation. Israeli soldiers also arrested four supporters during the protest.
The IOF troops also clashed with a similar protest in Ni’lin village and fired excessive tear gas grenades which lead to dozens of suffocation cases among protesters including children and foreign participants.
The troops also attacked on the same day other anti-wall protests in the village of Nabi Saleh in Ramallah, and the villages of Masara and Wadi Rahal in Bethlehem.
Another protest, but this time against the destruction and annexation of agricultural lands, took place in the village of Walajeh, northwest of Bethlehem, during which the protestors tried to reach their lands being bulldozed by Israeli troops in the Natof area.
In Jerusalem, the IOF troops also quelled a march staged yesterday by dozens of Palestinian citizens in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to protest Israel’s systematic policy of destroying and seizing their homes.
Earlier, on Thursday afternoon, dozens of Palestinians and foreign activists participated in a march against the expansion of the apartheid wall in the village of Marah Ma’alla, south of Bethlehem. Israeli troops armed with their machine guns and batons suppressed them and barred their access to the wall area.
In another context, the Palestinian center for human rights stated in a report that the IOF troops carried out 26 incursions into West Bank cities, towns and refugee camps during the week extending from 20 to 26 May.
The center said that during these incursions, the troops kidnapped 35 Palestinian citizens including 11 children, adding that 14 protestors, most of them foreign activists, were kidnapped during marches in the same reporting period.