Three Palestinians were injured today in an attack by Israeli settlers and army on a nonviolent tree-planting event in the town of Tuqu, to the southeast of Bethlehem, according to local sources.
Taysir Abu Mufarreh, director of the Tuqu Municipality, told WAFA that scores of army-guarded Israeli settlers physically assaulted and fired rubber-coated shots at local Palestinian activists who were taking part in the tree-planting event on a land near the town threatened with Israeli confiscation.
Abu Mufarreh added that the Israeli soldiers who were accompanying the settlers also attacked the local activists with pepper gas, causing three of them to suffocate. The three were moved to hospital for medical treatment.
Despite the Israeli attack, he added, the activists were able to plant forest trees on the land.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency