Israeli forces have attacked protests against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, leaving tens of Palestinians wounded.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Israeli forces attacked a weekly anti-settlement protest in Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya city, in the West Bank on Friday.
According to the report, Murad Shtaiwi, a media spokesman in the Qalqilya region, said that the Israeli forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the participants in the rally. Two young men were hit by rubber bullets and dozens of others suffered breathing difficulties due to inhaling tear gas.
Meanwhile, Quds News Network said in a tweet that Israeli forces dispersed another protest in the village of Beit Dajan, east of the West Bank city of Nablus, on Friday, using tear gas.
Israeli forces usually use force to disperse weekly anti-settlement protests in the occupied West Bank.
Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — territories the Palestinians want for a future state — during the six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967. It later had to withdraw from Gaza.
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More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. All the settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the settlement activities in several resolutions.
On Tuesday, the United Nations overwhelmingly adopted a resolution in condemnation of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East al-Quds, and Syria’s Golan Heights, and demanded the cessation of their construction.
