Palestinians get suffocated in clashes with Israeli army in West Bank

NABLUS, July 18 (YPA) – Dozens of Palestinians got suffocated on Saturday after they inhaled tear gas, during clashes with Israeli army on “Sabeeh” Mountain of Beita town in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

The clashes took place when dozens of the townspeople, activists, and Palestinian official figures went to the top of the mountain, which belongs to the town, in protest against the Jewish settlers’ erecting a number of tents Friday evening with the aim of establishing a settlement outpost on its summit.

The Israeli army dispersed the march and fired a barrage of gas and sound bombs at the protestors, causing suffocation of a number of them, and they were treated in the field.

The launching of the bombs also set fire to large areas of agricultural land in the area.

The Beita town witnesses confrontations from time to time, in an attempt to prevent settlers from controlling its lands and annexing them to the settlements adjacent to the town.

The Israeli government was scheduled to start the process of annexing the Jordan Valley and all the settlements in the occupied West Bank (about 30 percent of the West Bank’s area) in early July, but no decision has been issued yet.

YPA