Three Palestinian young men suffered rubber bullet injuries on Saturday evening when the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked an anti-settlement march staged in Kafr Qaddum town east of Qalqilya.
According to local sources The IOF intensively fired tear gas grenades and rubber bullets at the participants in the march leading many of them to suffer from exposure to tear gas fumes and three others to have gunshot injuries.
One of the wounded young men was seriously injured by a rubber bullet injury in his chest during the violent clashes in Kafr Qaddum and was rushed to a hospital in Nablus while the two others received on-site medical assistance.
On Friday the IOF also attacked the same march in Kafr Qaddum leading dozens of protesters and some journalists to suffer from tear gas injuries.
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 village 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.
