50 Palestinians wounded in confrontations with Israeli occupation forces and illegal settlers

About 50 Palestinians wounded in confrontations with IOF troops, settlers

 [25/04/2009 - 10:03 AM ]

NABLUS, (PIC)--

Illegal Israeli armed settlers backed by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired at Palestinian citizens in Ourif town, south of Nablus, wounding 13 civilians amidst widespread confrontations between West Bank Palestinians and IOF troops and settlers on Friday.

Local sources in the Ourif village said that six masked settlers opened fire at the citizens wounding six of them, and added that IOF troops then barged into the town, imposed a curfew and fired bullets and teargas canisters wounding seven more citizens.

The IOF command claimed that three guards of the nearby settlement of Yitzhar were wounded when armed Palestinians fired at them.

In Bil'in, Ramallah district, 25 demonstrators were treated for light to medium injuries when IOF soldiers used force to quell a peaceful anti separation wall demonstration.

Eyewitnesses said that the soldiers fired rubber-coated bullets and tear bombs at the participants in the weekly march, who included Luisa Morgantini, the deputy president of the European parliament, and Mairead Maguire, the Nobel peace laureate.

Four Palestinians were wounded in IOF shooting at a march in Ni'lin, also in Ramallah district, who were marching against the separation wall.

The IOF declared the area a closed military zone before the march started with the participation of 1,000 people including a number of foreign solidarity activists.

The IOF soldiers wounded four Palestinians in Masara village, Bethlehem district, when a massive march, grouping foreign activists including Israelis and Italians, hit the streets of the village while chanting national slogans and calls for bridling IOF crimes.

The soldiers battered the citizens after they removed barbed wires on their way to the separation wall.

Jewish settlers in Al-Khalil district attacked Palestinian farmers in Beit Ummar village while on their way to tend to their farms near the settlement of Gush Etzion.

Locals said that 20 settlers attacked the farmers with batons and other "sharp tools" and blocked their way to their farms.

IOF soldiers rounded up three young men from Nablus city on Friday and four others east of Jenin late Friday night.

In the Gaza Strip, IOF troops bulldozed cultivated lands in two incursions on Friday in central and northern Gaza.

Local sources told PIC reporter that the soldiers in armored vehicles escorted bulldozers and fired at random before the bulldozers started damaging vast cultivated areas.