Dozens of Palestinians were injured Sunday, during clashes with Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank, while at least 29 Palestinians were kidnapped by Israeli forces, overnight.Dozens were injured by rubber-coated metal bullets at the northern entrance of al-Bireh, according to WAFA Palestinian News & Info Agency.
Following a peaceful rally called for by the Fateh movement and national factions, which took off from the center of Ramallah to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinians, clashes broke out between protestors and Israeli forces.
The Secretary of Fateh in Ramallah and al-Bireh, Mwaffaq Suhwahil, asserted that the event is a clear message to Israel that ‘Fateh’ and the Palestinian people will continue to fight against the occupation until the establishment of independent state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.’
Meanwhile, Israeli forces raided a kindergarten in Beit Ummar, to the south of Hebron, according to a local official.
Spokesperson of the anti settlement popular committee in Beit Ummar, Mohammed Awad, said that armed Israeli soldiers raided the kindergarten at dawn, after breaking down its main front door and windows.
He said that forces further destroyed the furniture, computers, and children’s belongings, and ripped up the tiles from one of the classrooms before withdrawing from the area.
The Israeli army has previously carried out numerous such attacks, with deliberate and reckless use of force, against schools and educational facilities across the West Bank, in a serious violation of international law and students’ right to pursue education in a safe environment.
To be noted, Defense for Children International (DCI) described the year 2014 as the most difficult year for Palestinian children, due to ongoing Israeli violations, mainly the 2014 summer aggression on the Gaza Strip.
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The Global Coalition to protect Education from Attack also said, “During situations of armed conflict, attacks on education may violate international humanitarian and criminal law and constitute war crimes (or crimes against humanity during war or peacetime) as set out in the 1907 Hague Regulations, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and customary international humanitarian law.”
Mohammad Awad, the coordinator of the popular committee against settlements and the Apartheid Wall in Beit Ummar, said that clashes also broke out in the al-Thaher area, near the illegal settlement of Karmei Tzur, where Israeli soldiers fired teargas canisters in the direction of Palestinian houses, resulting in suffocation cases.
At least five Palestinian students were injured by live fire, while dozens others suffocated due to teargas inhalation during renewed clashes with Israeli troops at the campus of Palestine Technical University (Kadoorie) in Tulkarem, on Sunday, according to medical sources.
The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) said that five students were injured by live ammunition and dozens others suffocated due to inhaling teargas, as Israeli forces raided the university’s campus. Other students were also injured by rubber-coated rounds, and were treated at the scene.
PRC reported that three students lost consciousness due to excessive tear gas inhalation, which necessitated their transfer to hospital for treatment.
Since the beginning of unrest in October 2015, the university has been a scene of renewing clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians students, which have resulted in numerous injury cases and affected daily classes.
Israeli forces, overnight, abducted at least 29 Palestinians, including minors, from across various West Bank districts, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
PPS said that at least 15 Palestinians were detained from the Hebron area, 11 of whom were identified as Turkey al-A’lami, 37, Mohammed Abu Jhaisheh, 21, Mohammed Swaiti, Mo’ath Masalmeh, Mohammed Masharqa, Ayman and Mohammed Masharqa, Khalil Dasseh, 23, 26-year-old Ashraf and Amjad, 26, al-Qadi, in addition to Mohammed, 19, and Mohannad,17, Awad. The identity of the remaining four remains unknown until the moment.
In al-Bireh and Ramallah, forces kidnapped five Palestinians, including a 52-year-old mother of a Palestinian detainee held in Israeli jails, as she was on her way to visit her imprisoned son.
The five were identified as Nada Shokeh, 52, and Fadi Atallah, 17, in addition to three brothers identified as Ahmad, 19, Mahmoud, 21, and Mohannad, 17, Salahat.
Forces further took two more Palestinians from the Nablus area. They were identified as Mohammed Khader, and Ja’afar Ramadan.
In Tulkarem, army soldiers detained minor Ismail I’tair from the village of Faro’un.
In the meantime, forces served a number of Palestinian youths from Qabatiya, to the south of Jenin, with notices ordering them to appear before Israeli intelligence, at Salem military camp, in Jenin.
PPS said that, during the past two days, Israeli forces have detained at least 34 Palestinians, including a young women identified as Maryam Sawafteh, 21, from Tubas.
