Violent clashes on Saturday evening broke out between Palestinian young men and the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in Kafr Qaddum town east of Qalqilya.
According to local sources the events started when Israeli soldiers attacked a march staged in the town in protest at Israel’s settlement activity in the West Bank.
Eyewitnesses said many young men suffered from their exposure to tear gas during the skirmishes.
Recently the IOF has escalated its overnight campaigns in Kafr Qaddum and set up ambushes in abandoned homes in the area.
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.
