A Palestinian youth today was injured after being struck in the head with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli forces during clashes that broke out in the village of Burqa to the north of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank, according to a local activist.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli settlement activities in the north of the West Bank, said Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian residents after they attempted to fend off an attack against the village by Israeli settlers.
A youth was reportedly hit and injured in the head with a tear gas canister and dozens of others were treated at the scene from tear-gas suffocation.
In the meantime, Settlers gathered on Nablus-Ramallah Road near Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya village to the south of Nablus and proceeded to attack Palestinian-registered vehicles with stones, causing damages to several cars.
Israeli forces reportedly closed the main road connecting Ramallah to Nablus city and set up a military checkpoint at the entrance to Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya village preventing residents from entering or leaving and forcing them to look for alternative roads to reach their destination.
“The military avoids confronting violent settlers as a matter of policy, although soldiers have the authority and duty to detain and arrest them. Israeli security forces routinely enable settler violence against Palestinians and their property. As a rule, the military prefers to remove Palestinians from their own farmland or pastureland rather than confront settlers, using various tactics such as issuing closed military zone orders that apply to Palestinians only, or firing tear gas, stun grenades, rubber-coated metal bullets, and even live rounds. Sometimes, soldiers actively participate in the settler attacks or look on from the sidelines,” said the Israeli information center for human rights in occupied territories, B’Tselem.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency