Qais Abu Samra
16 August 2019•Update: 17 August 2019
RAMALLAH, Palestine
Israeli army on Friday used rubber bullets and teargas shells to disperse Palestinian protesters in the occupied West Bank.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that the Israeli army prevented dozens of citizens from performing Friday prayers in Kafr Malik in northeast of Ramallah.
Cases of suffocation as a result of teargas shelling were treated on the ground.
On Thursday, Palestinian factions called for Friday prayers on the lands of Kafr Malik, which is feared to be subject to Israeli settlement plans.
Meanwhile, Israeli army dispersed a weekly march in Kafr Qaddum town, using rubber bullets and tear gas shells.
Eyewitnesses confirmed to Anadolu Agency that a foreign woman was shot in the head with a rubber bullet while she was showing solidarity with Palestinian protestors. Dozens of others were affected by the tear gas and treated on the ground.
Every Friday, Palestinians across the Israeli-occupied West Bank stage demonstrations to protest Israel’s decades-long policy of building Jewish-only settlements on the confiscated Palestinian land.
According to estimates, 640,000 Jewish settlers currently live on 196 different settlements built with the Israeli government’s approval and more than 200 settler “outposts”, built without Israeli approval, throughout the West Bank.
International law regards the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, an "occupied territory" and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there to be illegal.
* Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara
