One Palestinian Shot, Dozens Suffocate at Weekly Kufur Qaddoum March

Occupation forces opened fire, Friday, at demonstrators at the weekly anti-settlement march in Kufur Qaddoum village, injuring one Palestinian young man, and causing dozens to suffer the effects of teargas, a local official reported.

For many years the Palestinian residents of Kufur Qaddoum village, east of Qalqilia, in the northern occupied West Bank have been protesting the closure of the main road into the village by the Israeli authorities in 2003.

Media spokesman for the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Morad Eshteiwi, stated that dozens of Israeli forces stormed the demonstration and opened fire with sponge-tipped rounds, injuring one young man in the arm.

Soldiers heavily fired teargas at the peaceful protest, rejecting the illegal Israeli settlements, causing dozens of participants to suffer teargas inhalation injuries. All injuries were treated at the scene by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) medical crew.

Eshteiwi added that the army stormed the Palestinian town and occupied the roofs of civilian homes to open fire at demonstrators.

Hundreds of villagers attended the Friday prayer at the local mosque, the rally was joined by popular resistance activist Khairy Hanoun, who marched in solidarity with the locals to the closed road at the entrance of the town.

The residents of Kufur Qaddoum have been holding rallies for many years, to express their rejection to the Israeli occupation and its illegal settlements, and to demand the occupation authorities reopen the road that was closed to Palestinians, while allowing exclusive use of the road to the illegal colonists.