The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) quelled on Monday a march organized by Palestinian national and Islamic forces in Bethlehem province to mark the Palestinian Prisoner Day.
The PIC reporter said that the march passed through the streets of the city with the participation of hundreds of citizens families of prisoners activists and university students. Portraits of the prisoners and Palestinian flags were raised and slogans supporting the striking prisoners were chanted.
As the march arrived at the northern entrance of Bethlehem the IOF soldiers fired tear gas canisters and rubber-coated metal bullets at the marchers injuring a number of them including the activist Ibrahim Musallam chairman of the Prisoners Families Committee in Bethlehem.
The march ended with the eruption of confrontations between the IOF and Palestinian youths who threw stones empty bottles and Molotov cocktails at the IOF soldiers.
Eyewitnesses told the PIC reporter that one Israeli soldier was injured in the confrontations.
The occupied Palestinian territories are witnessing mass demonstrations in solidarity with the prisoners on the Palestinian Prisoner Day and in support for their open hunger strike which they launched on Monday to regain their rights that were withdrawn from them by the Israeli Prison Service.
