Israeli forces, Palestinians clash near settlement outpost amid increase in violence elsewhere
Agencies | Tel Aviv
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Israeli forces clashed with Palestinians in the West Bank in an area that has seen a recent uptick in friction, the Israeli military and Palestinian medics said.
The clashes late Saturday were part of days of tension in the area surrounding a West Bank settlement outpost and a spike in violence elsewhere in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
During the clashes, the military said, hundreds of Palestinians threw rocks and burned tyres and shots were fired in the area.
The military said forces responded with live fire and “riot dispersal means,” typically tear gas and stun grenades.
The military also said shots were fired from a passing vehicle toward a military post near the West Bank city of Nablus, which is south of Homesh.
It was not clear if the shooting was related to the clashes.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said 10 people were wounded by live fire.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said one of them, a 17-year-old, was seriously wounded.
Dozens of others were wounded by rubber bullets.
A soldier was lightly wounded, the military said.
Homesh, in the northern West Bank, was dismantled as part of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
But in recent years, Israeli settlers have returned to pray and established an unauthorised outpost at the site.
Last week, at least one Palestinian gunman opened fire on a car filled with Jewish seminary students next to the outpost.
Yehuda Dimentman, 25, was killed and two others were wounded near Homesh, which is considered illegal by the Israeli government.
Protests by Palestinians in several villages north of Nablus appear to have succeeded in stopping a planned Jewish settler march, after the settlers demanded the return of land in the area as revenge for the killing of one of their own near Ramallah.
The demonstrations took place in the villages of Burqa, Sabastia, Silt Al Thahriah and Bazaria.
The Israel Defense Force responded with a mix of live bullets, rubber-covered metal bullets, and tear gas, with the Palestinian Red Crescent reporting a total of 247 injuries, at least nine of them from live bullets.
One Palestinian remains in a critical condition.
The main protests took place in the village of Burqa, but people from other villages said that they too suffered attacks by Jewish settlers.
Ghassan Douglas, a Palestinian from Burqa, and who is also the deputy head of the national committee against settlers in the north, said that the 30,000 Palestinians living in the area would not accept settlers on their land.
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