Israeli forces injure over 46 Palestinians in Nablus

Nablus – At least 46 Palestinian protesters were injured by Israeli occupation forces on Friday in Beita and Beit Dajan villages in Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least 46 Palestinians were injuried, 5 of them with rubber-coated metal bullets, fired at them by the Israeli forces in Beita and Beit Dajan.

Others also sustained injuries due to falling from high places after being chased and assaulted by the forces, others suffocated with teargas and injured with live ammunition.

Beita village becomes a site of weekly protests against the Israeli occupation and settlement expansion, which are often suppressed by Israeli forces.

The occupation authorities evacuated dozens of Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Evyatar in Beita, after a deal was reached between a settler leader and the occupation government of new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Yossi Dagan, head of settler organisation the Shomron Regional Council, struck a deal with Israel’s defence minister, Benny Gantz, and interior minister Ayelet Shaked, that will turn Evyatar into a religious school and a military base for the Israeli forces.

‘Israel’ will keep about 50 caravan houses settlers installed in May on Palestinian lands belonging to the residents of the occupied West Bank village of Beita, while settlers would “return” to the land when Israeli occupation authorities designate it as “state-owned.”

In early May, a group of Israeli settlers set up caravans on Jabal Sabih, and with the help of Israeli occupation forces have since prevented any Palestinian access to the area.

Within days, settlers installed mobile houses, built roads and raised an Israeli flag over the settlement.

Since then, Beita has witnessed several protests against the new settler outpost on Jabal Sabih, which lies on the southern outskirts of the village and comprises an estimated 30 percent of Beita’s entire land area.

The livelihoods of at least 17 Palestinian families – more than 100 people – are threatened as they depend on harvesting their olives on land they have owned for generations.

Beit Dajan has also seen weekly protests against the Israeli occupation, as lands spread across approximately 6,650 acres, according to the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem, large swathes of territory east of the village have been confiscated by the occupation state, labelled military zones and turned into the site for military bases and settlements, which are illegal under international law.

A large part of the village lands were seized for the construction of Al-Hamra and Mekhora (Mehola) illegal settlements, east and southeast of the village, in 1971 and 1973.