Five Palestinians shot, dozens arrested by Israeli forces in West Bank

Five Palestinian workers were shot and injured by Israeli forces on Tuesday morning, four of them near the village of Qafeen north of Tulkarm in the West Bank and one near the village of Ya’bud west of Jenin.

Israeli soldiers also arrested 14 Palestinians in various towns in the West Bank.

"Four workers were injured by bullets from Israeli occupation forces," The mayor of Qafeen, Said Harsha, told The New Arab’s Arabic-language service. "Many more workers suffered from choking when they breathed in tear gas fired by occupation forces at hundreds of workers near the separation wall."

Comment: How Israel turned the occupation into a moneymaking enterprise

The casualties of the shooting were taken to the Thabet Government Hospital in Tulkarm, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Medics said that the workers were shot in their legs and that their situation was “moderate”.

Palestinian workers queue at dawn every day to pass through Checkpoint 300 at the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank. Land was seized from villages in the West Bank to construct the wall. Workers have to wait for hours in extremely overcrowded conditions before Israeli soldiers let them pass through turnstiles to travel to Israel for work.

Israel severely limits the freedom of movement of Palestinians in the West Bank through a complex system of fixed and mobile checkpoints and settler-only roads.

Israeli forces also carried out a series of raids in the West Bank, arresting 14 Palestinians in Nablus, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and surrounding villages.

Clashes broke out between Palestinian youths in Al-Bireh west of Ramallah and Israeli forces as a result of the raids.

The arrested Palestinians include a child named Muntasser Nasir from the village of Isawiyah east of Jerusalem.