A number of Palestinian citizens were injured on Friday during violent clashes with the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in the towns of Beita Beit Dajan and Qaryut in Nablus and Kafr Qaddum in Qalqilya.
According to local sources clashes broke out after Israeli forces attacked anti-settlement marches organized following the Friday prayer in Beita and Beit Dajan near Mount Sobeih where an illegal settler outpost called Evyatar is located. Several protesters reportedly suffered from inhaling tear gas.
Similar clashes also happened in Qaryut town south of Nablus between local youths and Israeli forces after a horde of settlers stormed the town’s spring area.
Local sources said that Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters at young men and homes in Qaryut during the events in order to provide protection for dozens of settlers as they were performing Talmudic rituals and dancing in the area.
About two years ago settlers wreaked havoc on the spring area of Qaryut and its irrigation system and stole agricultural equipment belonging to local residents.
In Qalqilya the IOF quelled today the weekly march of Kafr Qaddum injuring several citizens.
Medical sources said that seven citizens suffered from rubber bullet injuries and many others from their exposure to tear gas.
Residents of Kafr Qaddum started staging weekly marches in 2011 to protest Israeli settlement activities and land grabs and to demand in particular the reopening of their village’s southern road which has been blocked by the IOF for long years. This road is the main route to the nearby city of Nablus the nearest economic center.
The Israeli army blocked off the road after expanding the illegal settlement of Kedumim in 2003 forcing the local residents to take a bypass road in order to travel to Nablus which has extended the travel time to Nablus from 15 minutes to 40 minutes according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.
