Some 90 Palestinian protesters have sustained injuries in fierce clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, amid escalating violence over the regime’s provocations ahead of the so-called march of the flags.
Palestine’s Ma'an news agency cited the Palestinian Red Crescent as saying on Friday that its staffers had dealt with 88 injuries from the Israeli occupation forces’ fire in Nablus and nearby towns and villages.
The towns of Beit Dajan, Jabal Sabih, Beita, and Hawara in Nablus were reported to have witnessed violent confrontations with the occupation forces.
The Palestinian Red Crescent added that its crews had recorded one injury with live bullets, 10 injuries with rubber-coated metal bullets, 72 injuries from suffocation, two injuries with pepper gas, one stun grenade injury, and two burn injuries.
Earlier in the day, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas warned Israel it risks another war if it allows the right-wing groups and extremist settlers to march through the occupied Old City of East al-Quds.
Palestinian resistance groups have strongly censured the Israeli regime and settlers for rolling the so-called March of the Flags in the occupied holy city on May 29, a provocative march that marks Israel's occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.
The so-called flag march was originally scheduled to be held on May 10, but Israel's right-wing groups shelved the controversial parade after police refused to authorize it and Hamas warned of the consequences.
Last week, Israel's public security minister Omer Bar-Lev said the police would approve of holding the flag march based on recommendations from security agencies.
Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip fired a barrage of retaliatory rockets into Israel last year as the 2021 flag march got underway, triggering an 11-day war between the occupying regime and the Palestinian resistance groups.
The Israeli regime was eventually forced to announce a ceasefire, brokered by Egypt, which came into force in the early hours of May 21.
Settlers shoot Palestinian farmers near Tulkarm
Also on Friday, a group of Israeli settlers opened gunfire at Palestinian farmers working on agricultural land outside the village of Shufa, in the northern occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm.
Palestine's official Wafa news agency cited Tahsin Hamed, a local Palestinian farmer, as saying that the Israeli settlers, under military cover, opened gunfire at his brothers and him while working on their own land, forcing them to leave at gunpoint.
Hamed added that the settlers attempted to steal his car, but his brother and he were able to drive out of the area for a safe haven.
Settler violence is rampant in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Settlers, protected by Israeli forces, regularly attack Palestinian commuters and villages in the occupied territories. Despite the damage and injuries they cause, no one is prosecuted or even arrested while Palestinians who throw stones at Israeli cars are quickly arrested, sometimes even shot, and sentenced to long prison terms.
Moreover, various attacks on Palestinian property, including arson and graffiti, have become a daily occurrence throughout the occupied territories, particularly in the West Bank.
However, the vast majority of such criminal files are closed due to deliberate police failure to investigate properly.