Friday, June 5, 2020 - Several Palestinians were injured Friday as Israeli occupation forces suppressed a number of rallies in various parts of the occupied West Bank to protest against Israeli annexation plans and to commemorate the 53rd anniversary of the Naksa.

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in Bil'in, Ni'lin, in the central occupied West Bank, Kafr Qaddom and near Jabbara checkpoint in Tulkarm, as well as in Haris, Qusin, in the northern West Bank, the Jordan Valley area and al-Khalil (Hebron), south of the West Bank.

A Palestinian was injured after being shot in the chest and dozens of others suffocated from tear gas as Israeli occupation forces attacked a peaceful activity to plant trees in Qusin village, west of Nablus.    

Local sources reported that Hani Salman was hit by a tear gas canister fired by Israeli occupation forces, who showered the peaceful activity with tear gas causing many to suffocate and setting some Palestinian fields on fire.

Israeli occupation forces also cracked down on a peaceful demonstration in the Jordan Valley area, injuring one Palestinian with a rubber-coated metal bullet to the head, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said in a statement.

While suppressing a weekly protest in Kafr Qaddom, east of Qalqilia, Israeli occupation forces wounded four Palestinians and fired tear gas at the participants causing suffocation to dozens of them. 

This week’s demonstration in Kafr Qaddom was held to commemorate the 53rd anniversary of the Naksa, protest annexation plans and land grab, and call for the reopening of an entrance to the village, closed since 2003, but was met with live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas by Israeli occupation troops, Mourad Shtaiwi, the weekly protest’s coordinator, said.    

As usual, Shtaiwi continued, Israeli occupation forces opened fire at water barrels, fired tear gas at Palestinian homes, and set up ambushes to arrest Palestinians.

Dozens of Palestinians, meanwhile, suffered from tear gas suffocation as the Israeli occupation army attacked two weekly, peaceful demonstrations in the West Bank villages of Bil'in and Ni'lin, west of Ramallah.  

The Palestinians in Tulkarm marked the 53rd anniversary of the Naksa with a popular demonstration near the Jabbara military checkpoint, where Israeli occupation forces opened fire at the protest held to protest Israeli expansionist and colonial plans in the occupied West Bank.

Held on the 53rd anniversary of the Naksa in the West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), a protest was staged in the West Bank city of al-Khalil to condemned Israeli crime and measures against the Palestinian people and Israeli plans to annex an occupied Palestinian territory.

On 5 May every year, The Palestinian people commemorate the 1967 Naksa (setback), which resulted in the occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Egypt’s the Sinai Peninsula, and Syria’s Golan Heights.

The anniversary this year coincides with the Israeli occupation’s decision to extend its sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and West Bank settlements, illegal under international law.

More than 30 percent of the occupied West Bank is expected to be annexed by the Israeli occupation next July.