ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/CLASHES-PROTEST Clashes erupt across West Bank in "Day of Rage"

Record ID: 135843

  • Title: ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/CLASHES-PROTEST Clashes erupt across West Bank in "Day of Rage"
  • Date: 23rd October 2015
  • Summary: GAZA CITY, GAZA (OCTOBER 23, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PALESTINIANS PROTESTERS MARCHING IN STREET, CARRYING PALESTINIAN FLAGS AND BANNERS
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7DC50J9I5BFSNN0AWI1EVER1V
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Israeli soldiers fired teargas, stun grenades, rubber coated bullets and live bullets at Palestinian protesters in the West Bank city of Ramallah near Beit Eil settlement and in the cities of Hebron and Bethlehem on Friday (October 23).
    The protesters set tyres ablaze and hurled stones at Israeli troops during clashes that erupted following Friday prayers.
    Dozens of minor injuries due to bullets were reported and tens of people arrived at hospitals suffering respiratory difficulties after tear gas inhalation.
    In Gaza, the Islamic Jihad movement held a rally and tens of protesters marched through the streets waving banners and Palestinian flags.
    "All the plans that are suggested by Kerry or the international community will fail because it will clash with the crimes of the occupation against al-Aqsa and our Palestinian people. Any attempt to quell this uprising will fail," said Hamas official Ismael Radwan.
    Jerusalem remained calm after entry for men to the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City was not restricted or limited to any age by Israel. A large security presence has been deployed in and around Jerusalem's old city.
    Israeli police frequently limit access to al-Aqsa to women and men over the age of 40 or 50 when they are concerned about potential clashes at the site.
    One of the worst waves of street violence in years has been triggered also by Palestinian anger at what they see as Jewish encroachment on the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, Islam's third holiest site, which is also revered by Jews as the location of two ancient temples.
    Earlier on Friday, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier, the Israeli military said, before being shot and wounded by other troops at the site of Etzion Bloc Jewish Settlement in the West Bank.
    Israeli media said the attacker was a 16-year-old, but there was no confirmation from Palestinian officials. Many of the Palestinian assailants in almost daily stabbing attacks in Israel, East Jerusalem and the West Bank have been teenagers.
    Hamas, the Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip, called in a statement "on angry Palestinians to take part in the mass rallies at the Friday of rage and new confrontation against occupation (Israeli) soldiers."
    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and militant Islamic Jihad have also urged Palestinians to take part in the demonstrations.
    Nine Israelis have been killed in Palestinian stabbings, shootings and vehicle attacks since the start of October. Forty-nine Palestinians among them children and including 25 assailants, have been killed in attacks and during protests.
    Netanyahu, who has accused Abbas of inciting the violence, has pledged to maintain a decades-old status quo at al-Aqsa compound that bans Jews from praying there and has denied Palestinian allegations that he intends to change the arrangement.
    As well as the al-Aqsa compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, Abbas has emphasised Israel's occupation of the West Bank and settlement-building as fuelling violence.
    Peace talks collapsed in 2014 over Israeli settlement-building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Palestinians seek for a state, and after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas angered Israel by reaching a unity deal with the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.
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