– Several İnjured As Israel Disperses W. Bank Protest

Several Palestinians on Friday sustained gunshot wounds when Israeli forces dispersed an anti-occupation protest in a West Bank town in which a senior Palestinian official died last week.



Three Palestinians were injured by live fire and four others with rubber bullets after Israeli forces forcibly dispersed the demonstration in the north-eastern Turmus Ayya town, according to The Anadolu Agency's reporter on the scene.



Israeli army forces also detained four anti-occupation protesters, including a female American national, during the melee.



Fistfights also broke out between protesters and Israeli soldiers during the protest.



Palestinians had earlier gathered in Turmus Ayya town for weekly demonstrations against the Israeli occupation and the Israeli-built separation barrier in the West Bank.



Protesters had set up a symbolic memorial at the spot where Ziad Abu Ein, who had been in charge of the Israeli settlements file for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), died last week following a clash with Israeli soldiers.



They also held aloft posters featuring pictures of Abu Ein and shouted anti-occupation slogans.



There has been no comment from Israeli authorities on Friday's clashes thus far.



Abu Ein had died after being exposed to heavy teargas and reportedly assaulted by Israeli soldiers during a protest against the construction of new Jewish settlements in Turmus Ayya.



Palestinian forensics chief Saber al-Aloul attributed Abu Ein's death primarily to internal bleeding of the coronary artery, which, he said, had been a consequence of "severe trauma."



The Israeli army, meanwhile, has since said it would "review" the circumstances of Abu Ein's death.



Palestinians stage weekly protests on Friday against ongoing Israeli settlement building and the separation wall, which snakes across the occupied West Bank, isolating large swathes of Palestinian territory.



The weekly rallies are typically dispersed by force by the Israeli army.



According to the Palestinian government in Ramallah, the separation wall effectively cuts some 50,000 Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem off from the city center.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Ramallah