AL-KHALIL (PIC)– Fifteen demonstrators were injured Friday afternoon by IOF troops attempting to quell demonstrations in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil to mark the 18th anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre.
Demonstrators also demanded the re-opening of Shuhada Road which is a major road that runs through the city linking its eastern part to its western part and which was closed to Palestinians after the massacre.
Local sources told PIC that clashes between demonstrators and IOF troops broke out at Tel Al-umaida Tariq Bib Zeyad cross roads and Shuhada Road when a march calling for its reopening headed towards the road at the centre of al-Khalil.
According the sources a demonstration started from the Sahaba mosque to mark the massacre and another started from Tel al-Romaida called for by the Third International Campaign to reopen Shuhada Road.
Eyewitnesses told PIC that IOF troops fired rubber coated bullets and teargas at demonstrators and used water cannons to spray them with sewage water. Fifteen demonstrators were injured. A number of protestors were also arrested by the IOF.
On 25 February 1994 Baruch Goldstein an American Jew who immigrated to Palestine and chose to live in Keryat Arba’ a Jewish settlement built on land confiscated from Palestinians walked into the Ibrahimi Mosque during dawn prayers and threw grenades and opened fire at worshippers killing 29 and wounding 125.
