Israeli forces injure dozens of Palestinians marking Land Day in the West Bank

Israeli forces injured dozens of Palestinians on Friday as they fired tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber-coated bullets at demonstrators commemorating Land Day in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters as they marched through the town of Hawara near Nablus, local journalist Abd al-Rahman al-Damidi told The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

They also assaulted journalists to prevent them from covering the march and arrested protesters, al-Damidi said.

Ten people in Huwara needed ambulance crew attention after suffering from ill health due to tear gas inhalation, Palestinian Red Crescent representative Ahmed Jibril said in a press statement.

Israeli forces employed similar tactics in the nearby town of Beita, where a march against the establishment of a settler outpost near Jabal Sabih took place, local writer Majdi Hamayel told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

In the town of Beit Dajan, also near Nablus, seven Palestinians needed treatment after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli forces, the Palestinian Red Crescent’s Jibril said. Protesters there had been marching towards land on which a settlement outpost had been established.

Dozens more protesters were injured in the villages of Kafr Qaddum and Qaryut, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported — including three who were hit by rubber-coated bullets fired by Israeli forces.

Land Day commemorates the events of 30 March 1976, when six Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli police for protesting the Israeli government’s decision to "Judaise the Galilee" by expropriating 21,000 dunams of Palestinian land to build more Israeli settlements in the Galillee region.

The protest was definitive in Palestinian history, as it marked the first act of collective civil disobedience by Palestinians against Israeli policies, within Israel's borders, since the 1948 Nakba. Some 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes during the Nakba to make way for the creation of Israel.

Land Day was on a Thursday this year, but most protests in the occupied Palestinian territories typically take place on Fridays.

On Friday evening, rampaging settlers attacked cars belonging to Palestinian residents in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli police stood by as the settlers pelted cars with stones, local sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah have long been vulnerable to explusion from their homes to make way for Jewish settlers.