Kfar Qaddum
Palestinian Territories: Israeli troops in the West Bank wounded 15 Palestinians with rubber bullets Friday in clashes marking 20 years since the start of the second intifada, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
The incident took place in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near Nablus in the north of the occupied territory, it said, adding that four of the injured were taken to hospital and the others treated on the spot.
The Red Crescent told AFP that it had also aided “dozens” of protesters who inhaled tear gas fired by Israeli forces. The Israeli army said it had no knowledge of clashes in the village. Bearing Palestinian flags, a few hundred demonstrators gathered there in the early afternoon, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
Protests against more than five decades of Israeli occupation are a regular weekly occurence in the West Bank.
Friday’s demonstrators also marked the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising which followed late Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s contentious visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on September 28, 2000.
The second intifada ended in February 2005, after the deaths of some 4,700 people, nearly 80 percent of them Palestinians.
Palestinian officials, including the vice-chairman of the Fatah party Mahmoud al-Alul, participated in Friday’s marking 20 years since the start of the second intifada, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
The incident took place in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near Nablus in the north of the occupied territory, it said, adding that four of the injured were taken to hospital and the others treated on the spot.
The Red Crescent told AFP that it had also aided “dozens” of protesters who inhaled tear gas fired by Israeli forces.—AFP
