A Palestinian workman suffered from burns and others from inhaling tear gas on Sunday morning after the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) chased them in the south of al-Khalil as they were trying to go to workplaces in 1948 occupied Palestine.
According to local sources Israeli soldiers at ad-Dhahiriya (Mitar) checkpoint showered Palestinian workmen with stun and tear gas grenades after chasing them.
One worker was burned by a stun grenade and many others suffered from their exposure to tear gas.
Meanwhile the IOF also chased other West Bank workers near the separation fence in the west of al-Khalil and closed openings in the fence with mounds of dirt and barbed wire.
According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem many Palestinian workmen have no choice but to risk entering without permits.
“They are caught between a rock and hard place: On one hand Israel issues permits sparingly based on arbitrarily chosen stringent criteria. On the other hand it prevents the development of an independent Palestinian economy by restricting imports exports industrial development and movement and by taking over land reserves and other Palestinian resources. This leaves Palestinians with no possibility to make a substantial living within the West Bank. This reality serves Israeli interests as it guarantees cheap [and] disempowered labor” B’Tselem says.
In a separate incident a horde of extremist Jewish settlers attacked at dawn Sunday a number of Palestinian homes in al-Khalil City.
Local sources said that armed settlers protected by soldiers attacked some homes in ash-Shalala street in central al-Khalil adding that no one was hurt in the settler attack.
Israeli soldiers and settlers also prevented Palestinian farmers in the morning from reaching their swaths of land in Beit Ummar town north of al-Khalil particularly in the area near the illegal settlement of Karmei Tzur.
