Dozens of Palestinian citizens were injured on Friday after clashes broke out with the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in various parts of the West Bank on the day of anger in support for the Palestinian prisoners who have been on hunger strike in Israeli jails for 33 consecutive days.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that at least 42 casualties were reported in the clashes.
According to the PIC reporter clashes broke out after Friday prayer at the entrances of Beit Dajan and Beita towns to the east and south of Nablus city respectively pointing out that the IOF closed the entrances to Beita with concrete blocks.
Journalist Mohammed Abu Thabet who is from Beit Dajan told the PIC reporter that Israeli patrols stationed an hour before the Friday prayer on the bypass road adjacent to the entrance of Beit Dajan which has been closed for years.
Eyewitnesses reported that tension prevailed in the area which led to the outbreak of confrontations with the IOF in which metal bullets and tear gas canisters were fired at the demonstrators.
The broadcast engineer Jouda Abu Nejma who works for a company that provides satellite services to TV channels suffered severe suffocation and was transferred to a local clinic for treatment.
In a later development eyewitnesses said that the Israeli settlers of Yitzhar settlement attacked the Palestinian vehicles passing through Huwara street south of Nablus.
The settlers gathered at three road junctions south of Nablus while the IOF soldiers closed the entrance of Madma which leads to the town of Burin.
Mass rallies were launched in Ramallah from the province’s mosques toward the points of contact with the IOF amid chants calling for escalating the confrontations with the Israeli occupation to force it to respond to the prisoners’ just demands.
Eyewitnesses said that clashes erupted in the villages of Ni’lin and Budrus in Ramallah following anti-settlement and anti-occupation marches. Slogans in support of the striking prisoners were chanted and at least one young man was shot and injured.
A mass march was launched in Aboud village to the west of Ramallah toward the main entrance of the village.
The IOF soldiers closed the entrance and fired live and rubber-coated metal bullets sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the marchers. The Palestinian youths responded by throwing stones at the soldiers.
In Ni’lin town to the west of Ramallah three Palestinian youths were injured with rubber-coated metal bullets while others chocked on tear gas at the main entrance of the town.
The residents of Bil’in village staged a sit-in on the bypass road and closed it completely in the face of the settlers causing a suffocating traffic jam.
The IOF soldiers attacked the citizens with gas and sound bombs and rubber-coated metal bullets and assaulted the journalists who were present in the scene to cover the peaceful march.
The PIC reporter reported that sporadic confrontations flared up between Palestinian youths and the IOF in Bab al-Zawiya area in al-Khalil during which the IOF soldiers fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs.
Similar clashes broke out at the entrance of Beit Ummar town following a march in solidarity with the hunger striking prisoners.
Thousands of Palestinian citizens participated in a mass march in al-Khalil on Friday in support for the prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails. The march witnessed the participation of a number of official figures and activists as well as families of prisoners.
According to the PIC reporter a demonstration was launched in Bethlehem city after Friday prayer in the Nativity Square toward the northern entrance of the city.
As the demonstration approached the entrance the IOF attacked it with sound bombs and tear gas canisters. About half an hour later the Palestinian youths were attacked by undercover soldiers who sprayed them with nerve gas which paralyzes victims before kidnapping 6 youths.
Meanwhile 9 Palestinian citizens were injured including two children with rubber-coated metal bullets in Kafr Qaddum town in Qalqilya according to the coordinator of popular resistance in the town Murad Shtewi.
Shtewi added the IOF soldiers smashed the glass of five cars while trying to prevent launching the peaceful anti-settlement march of Kafr Qaddum which demands opening the town’s road that has been closed for more than 14 years.
In the same context confrontations broke out at the eastern entrance of Qalqilya city between Palestinian citizens and the IOF following Friday prayer that was performed in front of the solidarity tent in the city in the presence of hundreds of citizens.
A local source said that two Palestinian citizens were injured with rubber bullets during confrontations at the southern entrance of Jericho city to the east of the occupied West Bank.
Two Palestinian youths were shot with rubber-coated metal bullets in the violent confrontations that erupted in the vicinity of Qalandiya military checkpoint to the north of Occupied Jerusalem following the march that was launched from Qalandiya refugee camp to support the striking prisoners.
The Palestinian youths threw stones and empty bottles at the IOF soldiers who hid behind the cement cubes they erected.
About 1500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails started a hunger strike on 17th April 2017 in demand for their basic rights which they are denied by the Israel Prison Service and which they were able to clinch in previous hunger strikes.
The prisoners mainly demand ending the policies of administrative detention solitary confinement and medical negligence and allowing regular family visits.
