Clashes broke out across the Hebron district on Wednesday as thousands of mourners gathered to take part in funeral processions for three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces a day earlier.

In Hebron’s Old City, Israeli forces fired tear gas at a girls’ primary school, causing several children to faint.

A teacher at the al-Zahra school told Ma’an that Israeli forces fired tear gas directly onto school grounds, with Palestinian medics treating the young children at the scene.

In Hebron’s Bab al-Zawiya neighborhood, clashes broke out between young Palestinian men and Israeli troops.

Locals said young men hurled stones at Israeli soldiers stationed at the entrance to Shuhada Street. The soldiers responded by firing tear-gas canisters, injuring several people.

Shop owners closed their stores as clashes intensified.

In Beit Ummar, witnesses told Ma’an that young men clashed with Israeli forces in the area. Several protesters suffered from tear-gas inhalation.

Muhammad Awad, spokesman of Beit Ummar’s local committee against settlements and the separation wall, was hurt by a tear-gas canister which hit him directly in the chest.

He was evacuated to a medical complex in the town for treatment. Medics said he was in moderate condition.

Israeli forces deployed at the main road to Hebron near Beit Ummar and carried out inspections on Palestinian vehicles. Eyewitnesses said that Israeli forces fired a tear-gas canister into a passenger bus driving from Hebron to Beit Ummar, injuring several people.

In Yatta, thousands joined the funeral of Mousa Makhamra and Mahmoud al-Najjar.

The funeral procession started at the central mosque in Yatta and went toward the town’s cemetery.

Mourners chanted slogans urging Palestinian fighters to retaliate for the killings and calling upon the Palestinian Authority to stop peace negotiations with Israel.

A separate funeral procession was held in Hebron for Muhammad Fuad Nayroukh after prayers at Ansar mosque in the city. A Ma’an reporter said hundreds of mourners joined the funeral.

Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinians late Tuesday near Hebron in the occupied West Bank, Israeli security forces said.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma’an that the men were traveling in a car near Hebron and fired on security officers, who responded by shooting and killing the occupants.

He said the men were members of a “Salafi Jihad terrorist cell” that were planning an attack in the coming days. Explosives were found in the car, he added.

In a statement, the Israeli army said they also planned to target the Palestinian Authority.

(Ma’an – www.maannews.net)