ISRAELI FORCES INJURE 4 AFTER OPENING FIRE ON WEST BANK PROTESTS

Bethlehem, 5 Rabiul Awwal 1436/27 December 2014 (MINA)– Four Palestinians including an elderly women were injured in the West Bank on Friday (26/12) after Israeli forces opened fire on protesters in two separate villages with rubber-coated steel bullets.

Two Palestinian women were injured in the village of Farun just south of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, Ma’an News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Yusra Mohammad Al-Haj al-Abd, 72, and Jumana Ahmad Shayib, 48, were shot by Israeli forces in their upper bodies during clashes in the village and were taken to a hospital for treatment.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said that the pair were “hurling rocks at Israeli soldiers” when they were shot in the “lower extremities.”

She said that Israeli forces had entered the village — which is in Area A, technically under full Palestinian control — on “some sort of routine patrol” and while on their way out locals started “hurling rocks” at them.

She said that soldiers fired at them after those hurling rocks refused to comply with orders to stop.

Also on Friday, two Palestinian youths were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets in clashes in the area of Safa in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.

A 20-year-old was hit in the head and taken to hospital in a stable condition while a 17-year-old was hit in the right hand and treated on the scene.

Spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committee in Beit Ummar Mohammad Ayyad Awad said that dozens also suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation in the clashes, which broke out after Israeli forces raided the area.

Awad said that Palestinians threw stones at the Israeli soldiers, who fired rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and tear gas canisters at the crowds. (T/P010/P3)

Mi’raj  Islamic News Agency (MINA)