IOF soldiers detain writer, quell peaceful marches

RAMALLAH, — The Ahrar center for prisoners’ studies and human rights on Sunday denounced the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) for arresting the Palestinian writer Walid Al-Hawdali last Thursday.

The center said in a statement that Hawdali was previously held in Israeli jails for 15 years and had written a number of books on his incarceration experience.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian young man was injured and many others suffered tear gas suffocation when the IOF troops violently quelled two marches against settlement expansion and the segregation wall in Irak Burin village, south of Nablus, and Beit Ummar village, north of Al-Khalil.

Eyewitness from Irak Burin said that a young man called Jihad Qadus was wounded in the leg when Israeli troops fired a tear gas grenade at him while dozens suffered breathing problems after they inhaled tear gas fumes.

They said that the intensified use of gas bombs started fires in the village lands, which were extinguished later on.