QALQILIYA (Ma'an) -- Five Palestinians were injured, two critically, when Israelis forces opened live fire on the Kafr Qaddum weekly march Friday. A coordinator for the village's popular resistance committee, Murad Shtewi, said that Muhammad Majid, 20, had been shot in the stomach and chest with live rounds and is in critical condition. Ibrahim Mousa, 35, is also in critical condition after he was shot in the abdomen while in his house. Shtewi also said that Muhammad Nidal, 20, and Mouiz Khader had been shot in the leg, and Ayman Farouq, 38, in the hand. Dozens others suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation. Israeli forces had closed down the village's entrance since the early morning after they declared it a closed military zone. As a result, those injured had to be evacuated from the village in private cars using dirt roads. An Israeli army spokeswoman contacted by Ma'an said she would look into it. Israeli forces routinely suppress weekly marches by viole...

An Italian was critically injured on Friday afternoon after Israeli forces opened live fire on a protest march in the village of Kafr Qaddum west of Nablus. Palestinian Minister of Health Jawad Awwad told Ma'an that an Italian solidarity activist he identified as Prodo Corsi, 30, was injured after Israeli forces fired several bullets at him in the stomach and chest. The minister said that Corsi was in "critical" condition as a result of the shooting, which took place during a protest march against the Israeli occupation. Awwad said that "shooting live fire at the upper part of the bodies of protesters is directly targeting them and is a deliberate attempt at murder." "Israel does not differentiate between foreign solidarity activists, Palestinians, or even journalists," he added. Khaldoun Ishtewi, media coordinator for public campaigns in Kaf Qaddum, told Ma'an that the Italian national was taken to the Rafidia Public Hospital in Nablus for t...

The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Kufur Qaddoum village, near the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, reported Frida [June 21, 2013] that dozens of Israeli soldiers attacked the weekly nonviolent protest, wounding four residents, and kidnapped reporters of the official Palestine TV. The Committee said that the soldiers violently attacked and beat Ahmad Shawar, cameraman Bashar Nazzal, working for the Palestinian TV, confiscated their cameras, and threw the rest of their equipment in the trash. A spokesperson of the Israeli army claimed that the kidnapped journalists “attacked the soldiers”, and that they have been transferred to an interrogation facility. Morad Shteiwy, coordinator of the Popular Committee in the village, has reported that the army surrounded the village since early morning hours Friday, and invaded it I an attempt to prevent the residents from holding their weekly protest against the illegal Annexation Wall and settlements. more

Thanks to the International Middle East Media Center Non-violent protests took place in five locations on Friday, in different parts of the West Bank, resulting in injuries at all five locations and arrests in the village of al-Ma'sara, near Bethlehem, Kafr Qaddum, near Qalqilya, and an-Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah. In Kafr Qaddum, whose villagers have begun weekly protests in the last month, three resident of the village were injured today by direct hits from tear gas cannisters. One of those injured was arrested whilst being treated by medics. The firing of tear gas canisters directly at protesters contravenes international law that states that tear gas canisters must be fired in a upwards arc, and never directly at persons. In al-Ma'sara, local protest organizer, Mahmoud Alaaeddin, was arrested whilst returning home from the village's protest. The Popular Committee in the village reported that the protest took place without injury and in a peaceful manner, and that the prot...