Confrontations flare up in West Bank, Gaza over latest US move
Violent clashes erupted on Saturday between Palestinian youths and the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at the northern entrance to Biet Lahm ('Bethlehem') after school students marched against the US declaration of Quds as the capital of Israel.
Violent clashes erupted on Saturday between Palestinian youths and the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at the northern entrance to Biet Lahm ('Bethlehem') after school students marched against the US declaration of Quds as the capital of Israel.
Local sources reported that the IOF soldiers fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at the protesters who responded by throwing stones and empty bottles.
They added that a Palestinian student was arrested and many others suffered from tear gas inhalation during the clashes.
Other confrontations broke out between Palestinian youths and the IOF soldiers in Bab al-Zawiya area in al-Khalil on Saturday morning.
The PIC reported that five Palestinians choked on tear gas and a sixth was transferred to a local hospital after being injured with a rubber bullet in the head.
Meanwhile in the southern Gaza Strip, school students participated in large numbers in demonstrations organized by the Islamic Bloc, Hamas's student wing, in Khan Younis in protest at the US president Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Head of the Islamic Bloc in Khan Younis, Emad Eslim, in a statement to the PIC condemned Trump's decision and expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people in Quds.
Media sources reported that hundreds of Palestinians on Saturday marched toward the border fence in different areas, east of the Gaza Strip.
Local sources said that the IOF soldiers stationed behind the fence showered the protesters with live bullets and tear gas canisters.
In the same context, spokesman for Gaza's Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qedra, said that a 35-year-old Palestinian woman was moderately injured in the shoulder after being shot by the IOF east of Khuza'a town in the southern Gaza Strip.
Four Palestinians have been killed and 170 others injured in the protests that started on Friday and were followed by several airstrikes on three resistance sites belonging to al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, in the besieged Gaza Strip.