Some 300 Palestinians and 100 Israeli and international peace activists
marched on Friday against the Israeli Annexation Wall in Bil'in
village, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. The procession marked the
Independence Day in Palestine and called for the end of the occupation
and the Israeli annexation policies. Seven protesters were injured as
the army violently attacked the peaceful procession.
Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil'in told the IMEMC that the protesters marched after Friday prayers towards the construction site of the Wall while the Israeli troops were deployed between the olive orchards.
Also, troops closed the annexation Wall gate, the separates the residents from their orchards, and placed barbed wires in the way leading to the gate.
As the protesters continue their march towards the Wall, soldiers fired gas bombs and rubber-coated bullets at them, which led to further clashes between the youth and the soldiers.
Four residents and three activists were injured by rubber-coated bullets; two of them needed hospitalization at Sheik Zayid Hospital in Ramallah.
The two were identified as Nayef Ghazi Al Ghateeb, 19, who was hit by a rubber-coated bullet in his head, and Khaled Rawhi Abu Rahma, who was injured by a rubber-coated bullet in his hand.
The rest of the injured protesters received treatment on the scene. They were identified as Eyad Bornat, Mohammad (one of the guards of MP Qais Abu Laila, Michal (Israeli activist), Natalia (Swedish activist), and Avlina (French activist).
Moreover, soldiers attacked Reuters cameraman, Oleg, and one gas bomb, fired by the army, hit the Reuters vehicle.
Soldiers also invaded the the western side of the village, broke into the house of Mahmoud Abdul-Hadi Smara and occupied its rooftop using it as a monitoring tower. The family of Samara was not allowed to leave the house.
Soldiers, topping the house of Samara, fired rubber-coated bullets at the protesters; the house is 500-600 meters away from the Wall.
Abu Rahma told the IMEMC the the army usually ambushes the protesters at the edges of the village in order to bar them from reaching the Wall.
Abu Rahma slammed the Israeli military violence practiced against the peaceful protests and said that each time a new military officer in instated, “he tries to prove to his superiors that he can stop us and end our protests against the Wall, and when they fail, they tend to be more violent the their predecessors”.
“Our peaceful struggle against the Wall, settlements and the occupation is ongoing”, Abu Rahma added, “They cannot stop us, we have our national rights, and were are struggling to achieve them”.
