Norwegian activist in occupied West Bank shot twice by Israeli forces

Israel shot a Norwegian activist in the occupied West Bank, wounding her on two separate occasions.

Kristen Foss, 43, is a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and recently joined activists to demand a halt to the planned demolition of the Palestinian village of Kafr Qaddum.

She has also joined demonstrations demanding the reopening a West Bank road in Nablus, to allow Palestinian farmers to access their land.

She was shot twice by Israeli forces with plastic coated bullets - once in the stomach on 18 August and on the ankle on Friday, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

At the time of the first assault, confrontations had taken place between Israeli soldiers and local protesters, following weekly army raids into Palestinian villagers, according to Foss.

Foss said that she and another activist stood at a distance from the soldiers and local residents, though they remained within sight of the soldiers. When the clashes died down, an old Palestinian man - whose car the Israeli soldiers had confiscated and were using as a shield - asked to two women for help in retrieving it from the soldiers.

When all of three of them approached the Israeli soldiers with their hands raised, the troops began shouting and pointing their riffles at them. A single shot was fired which hit Foss in the stomach.

A week later on Friday, soldiers gathered again outside the Palestinian village just before the end of the Friday prayers, activists told Haaretz.

They entered the village just before demonstrations were due to take place with Palestinian youth responding to the incursion by throwing rocks at the armed soldiers.

An Israeli activist Nirit Haviv and three of her Israeli colleagues approached the soldiers to suggest they move away from the demonstrations to prevent further clashes.

An argument broke out, Haviv asked the soldiers why they had fired at Foss the previous week.

She says one of them lied: "What are you talking about, we don't shoot women unless she was standing next to the primary inciter."

The activists moved away at the request of the soldiers, who began firing tear gas and stun grenades - followed by rubber-coated bullets.

Straight after the tear gas was fired, protesters left the scene. Foss, who was walking away said she felt something hit her ankle and realised she was shot.

At the hospital he saw other Palestinians being treated for the same injuries including an eight-year-old boy.

Foss, among other activists and thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are routinely victim of brutal Israeli violence.

Israel has occupied the West Bank illegally since 1967, committing various crimes against Palestinian civilians.

More than 600,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in constructions considered illegal under international law.

Along with stealing land, occupying Israeli forces and settlers routinely torment Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority condemned a new plan to build 20,000 illegal Israeli settlement units in the occupied city of Jerusalem as a "declaration of war".

PA spokesman Yousef al-Mahmoud said on Thursday that the settlement plan was a crime committed by Israeli and US authorities.

"[This] is declaration of war on the existence of the city and its Arab and Islamic characteristics and an attempt to bury these distinguishing features," the agency quoted Mahmoud as saying.

He warned the move will "lead the region and the world into more conflict and violence".

On Wednesday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinians will defeat the new settlement plan.