Europe News Desk!! At least 216 Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli troops southeast of the West Bank city of Nablus. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that fierce clashes broke out between protesters and Israeli troops on Monday in the village of Beita. It said 22 people were hit with rubber bullets, while Israeli troops fired dozens of tear gas shells, Xinhua news agency reported. Seven Israeli ministers, 20 lawmakers and more than 17,000 Israeli residents organized a march near the outpost of Avtar (an unrestricted outpost in the northern West Bank) that was followed by clashes. Palestinian eyewitnesses told Xinhua that thousands of Israeli residents staged a provocative march towards the outpost of Awtar near Nablus.
He said Palestinian protesters waved flags, chanted anti-Israel slogans, burned tires and threw stones at Israeli soldiers. Soldiers fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. Condemning the march, Palestinian presidential spokesman Abu Rudineh held the Israeli government responsible for attacks on Palestinians and called for immediate and swift intervention to stop it. Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is also a settler and leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, said the purpose of the march was to say that the nation of Israel is strong and that we are here and will stay. The march took place amid escalating violence, sparked by clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound last week. More than 600,000 Israeli residents live in dozens of settlements in the West Bank, which were established after Israel annexed the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.
–IANS
World News Desk!!
SKK/SKP