At least five Palestinian citizens suffered rubber bullet injuries on Saturday evening when the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked the weekly anti-settlement march of Kafr Qaddum east of Qalqilya.
Local sources said that dozens of Israeli soldiers embarked on showering the participants in the march with volleys of tear gas canisters and firing rubber bullets at them.
Many others including children and women suffered from their exposure to tear gas.
Local youths for their part clashed with the IOF and hurled stones at them.
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 long 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.
