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Protester killed in Bilin last week
Photo: Reuters
Protest in Na'alin (Archive)
Photo: AFP

Palestinian wounded during Naalin protest

Week after Palestinian demonstrator is killed during Bilin rally, witnesses say another protestor sustains moderate to serious head injuries after being hit by IDF tear gas canister in other West Bank village . 'The gas grenade hit the protestor exactly like last week,' one demonstrator says. Israeli citizens arrive in Naalin to express support for security forces

A Palestinian was moderately to seriously injured Friday after an Israel Defense Forces tear gas canister hit him in the face during the weekly rally against the separation fence in the West Bank village of Naalin near Ramallah, witnesses at the place said. Thirteen soldiers and Border Guard officers were lightly hurt in the riots in Naalin and in the nearby village of Bilin.

 

A week after 30-year-old Bassem Ibrahim Abu-Rahma was killed in Bilin by an army gas canister during an anti-fence rally, some 1,000 people arrived in the area to protest against the fence.

 

Local Palestinians and protesters reported that the IDF used massive force and fired large amounts of tear gas in an attempt to disperse the demonstration. According to the demonstrators, 10 people were injured by rubber bullets fired at them.


Na'alin, Friday (Photo: Shachaf Polakov, Activestills) 

 

According to the IDF, the demonstrators hurled stones at the army and Border Guard forces, who responded with crowd dispersal means.

 

According to the demonstrators in Naalin, the young man injured was directly hit by a tear gas canister just like in last week's incident, claiming that the gas was fired from a distance of less than 30 meters (98 feet). The wounded man was evacuated to a hospital in Ramallah.

 

The IDF is looking into the report of the injury. The investigation into last week's shooting has not been concluded yet.

 

'We were marching inside village'

Yonatan Pollack, who participated in the protest, told Ynet, "After the village residents' Friday prayers had concluded, we set out to march in the village, and then Border Guard officers started shooting at us and clashes erupted.

"There was no stone throwing or anything like that. The gas canister hit the protester just like it hit the protester in Bilin last week. The shooting took place inside the village, on the main street, and not even close to the fence," he related. "This only shows that if last week's death was a concrete mistake, this is not the case."


Injured evacuated in Bilin (Photo: Activestills)

 

A group of right-wing activists also arrived at the Palestinian village to show their show support for the Israeli security forces. The supporters mentioned the large number of casualties among Border Guard and IDF officers in the ongoing clashes taking place in the area in the past few years, on an almost weekly basis.

 

Knesset Member Otniel Schneller (Kadima) called for restraining orders to be issued against the people protesting near the fence.

 

"There should be restraining orders against the anarchists and the extreme leftists aiming to hurt IDF soldiers and trample the law, just as there are restraining orders against the extreme Right during the olive harvests in Samaria," Schneller said at a rally for IDF soldiers in Naalin.

 

The IDF reported that 153 members of the security forces have been injured in riots in Bilin and Naalin since the beginning of 2008, including a reserve soldier whose eye socket was crushed from a stone hurled at him. In addition, three soldiers were forced to end their military service as fighters after being wounded in riots.

 

The damage caused to the separation fence in the Bilin area is estimated at some NIS 205,000 (about $48,000). An IDF official noted that "in order to deal with the riots the army is forced to dispatch the forces from their main mission, which is to fight the terror infrastructures and defend the State's citizens."

 

Efrat Weiss and Anat Shalev contributed to the report

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.24.09, 15:00
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