Israeli troops attack Palestinian demos in West Bank

A series of clashes have broken out when Israeli forces attacked separate groups of Palestinians protesting across the occupied West Bank and used violent means to disperse the crowds.

On Friday, Palestinians held massive rallies in the villages of Bil’in and Kfar Qaddum to express their anger over the ongoing Israeli settlement building and the apartheid wall.

The protesters, including Palestinians and international peace activists, chanted slogans against the expropriation and the confiscation of Palestinian land by Israel.

Witnesses said that the demonstrations were largely peaceful until Israeli forces assaulted the protesters and used water cannons, rubber-coated bullets, and teargas canisters to break up the protest. The protesters pelted stones at Israeli forces in return.

The demonstrators also denounced a series of brutal wars waged by Israel on the besieged Gaza strip.

This comes as United Nations is seeking to put the Israeli military on its blacklist over the regime’s aggressive policies against the Palestinian people, particularly children.

The move is recently recommended by Leila Zerrougui, the UN secretary general's special representative for children and armed conflict.

Zerrougui has said such an act must be taken because of more than 500 Palestinian children who were killed and 3,300 others who were injured during last summer's Israeli aggression against the blockaded Palestinian enclave.

Nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children, were killed in Israel’s 50-day onslaught. Over 11,100 others -- including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people -- were also injured.

Thousands of Palestinians stage weekly rallies to denounce the Israeli settlement activities and the separation wall, which has isolated large swathes of Palestinian territory.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967.

Israel occupied and then annexed the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in the Six-Day War of 1967, but the move has never been recognized by the international community.

In a non-binding advisory opinion delivered in 2004, the International Court of Justice at The Hague called on Tel Aviv to stop the construction of illegal separation walls in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds, and the besieged Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.

JR/AS/MHB

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