Israeli forces attack Palestinian protesters in West Bank

Israeli forces have suppressed several protests staged by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to condemn the Tel Aviv regime’s policies.

The province of Nablus saw new anti-settlement protests on Friday, but they were once again met with force.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that three Palestinians, including a child, had been hit with rubber bullets during clashes with Israeli forces on Sobeih Mountain in the town of Beita, south of Nablus.

Since May, Beita has seen intensified clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians protesting against a settlement outpost that has been established on Sobeih Mountain by settlers under the protection of Israeli forces.

Five Palestinian also suffered from breathing difficulties in the village of Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, on Friday due to inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli forces.

In the city of al-Khalil (Hebron), a journalist was among tens of Palestinians who were injured during clashes with Israeli troops on Friday.

The WAFA news agency said that Israeli troops used rubber bullets and tear gas against the Palestinians in Bab al-Zawiya in central al-Khalil, leaving dozens of them injured.

Also on Friday, scores of people suffered from breathing difficulties due to inhaling tear gas used by Israeli forces against people taking part in a weekly anti-settlement rally in the village of Kafr Qaddum in Qalqilya.

Murad Shteiwi, a media spokesman in the Qalqilya region, said the protest was also staged to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and to express their support for residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the occupied East al-Quds.

‘Racist crime’

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas on Friday condemned as a “racist crime” the passing of a law by the Israeli parliament that bars Israeli settlers from extending citizenship or even residency to Palestinian spouses from the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip.

Israeli parliament passes law to keep out Palestinian spouses

Israel’s parliament has passed a law that bars Israeli settlers from extending citizenship or even residency to Palestinian spouses from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha said the passing of the so-called "citizenship law," which bans the unification of Palestinian families, is “a persistent racist crime” that reveals “the real face of the occupation which is based on dispersal of Palestinian families.”

He stressed that Hamas rejected the “racist law,” which he said violated international pacts and norms, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that was adopted in 1948.

The movement also urged the United Nations and all concerned organizations to stand against the law, and shoulder their responsibility to hold “the usurper entity” accountable for the crimes it has been committing against the Palestinians.

On Thursday, the so-called “citizenship law” was passed by a 45-15 majority vote.

Critics say the law discriminates against the 21-percent Palestinian minority, who are Palestinian by heritage and Israeli by citizenship, by barring them from extending citizenship and permanent residency rights to Palestinian spouses.

Israel occupied East al-Quds, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip during the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War in 1967. It later had to withdraw from Gaza.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank.

All the settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the settlement activities in several resolutions.

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