Dozens of Palestinian citizens suffered from their exposure to tear gas during clashes on Saturday evening with the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in Kafr Qaddum town east of Qalqilya.
According to local sources the IOF attacked the weekly anti-settlement march of Kafr Qaddum and showered the participants with volleys of tear gas grenades.
The sources added that local youths managed to foil an IOF ambush aimed at arresting a number of them in the village without providing further details.
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 14 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.
