Israeli forces Friday afternoon quelled an anti-annexation march in Kafr Qaddum town, east of Qalqiliya city, injuring dozens of protestors, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Coordinator of the Local Popular Resistance Committee Murad Ishtiwi said that Israeli troops opened fire towards protestors marching against Israel’s illegal move to annex large swaths of the West Bank, hitting a 23-year-old protestor with a rubber-coated steel bullet in the foot and causing dozens of others to suffocate from tear gas inhalation.
Dozens of Palestinians injured during anti-annexation march https://t.co/PWd88lxEKO
— Joe Catron ✊🏽 (@jncatron) August 7, 2020
All the suffocation cases received treatment at the scene.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had pledged to annex nearly 30 percent of the total size of the occupied Palestinian West Bank and Jordan Valley, an act deemed a stark violation of international law.
Although annexation didn’t actualize on July 1, a self-imposed deadline by Netanyahu himself, Israel remains adamant in its intentions to formalize the annexation of large swathes of Palestinian land.
#Gaza Women Rally against #Annexation (PHOTOS) https://t.co/dwxYCtxzna via @PalestineChron pic.twitter.com/AoUHAGnGZj
— @palestinechron (@PalestineChron) August 6, 2020
Washington is supportive of the Israeli move, although media reports spoke of the possibility that Trump’s Administration may have requested that Tel Aviv delay its plans for an unspecified period of time.
(Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)