- Several İnjured As Israel Disperses W. Bank Protest

Two Palestinians were injured Friday in the West Bank town of Bilin when Israeli forces dispersed a weekly anti-occupation protest, eyewitnesses have said.



Two young Palestinian men were transferred to a Ramallah hospital with birdshot injuries after Israeli forces used birdshot and teargas to disperse protesters, according to eyewitnesses.



Earlier Friday, several other Palestinians sustained gunshot wounds when Israeli forces dispersed an anti-occupation protest in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, where a senior Palestinian official died last week when Israeli troops broke up a similar rally.



Three Palestinians were injured by live fire and four others by rubber bullets when Israeli forces violently dispersed the demonstration, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter at the scene.



Israeli army forces detained four anti-occupation protesters – including a female U.S. national – during the melee, which also saw fistfights erupt between protesters and Israeli soldiers.



Palestinians had gathered earlier in Turmus Ayya for a weekly demonstration to protest Israel's decades-long occupation and its West Bank separation barrier.



Protesters set up a 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 posters aloft bearing Abu Ein's image and shouted anti-Israel slogans.



There has been no comment yet by Israeli authorities on Friday's clashes.



Abu Ein died on December 10 after being exposed to heavy teargas and reported assaults by Israeli soldiers during a rally held to protest construction of new Jewish settlements in Turmus Ayya.



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



The Israeli army, meanwhile, has since vowed to "review" the circumstances of Abu Ein's death.



Palestinians stage weekly protests on Friday against ongoing Israeli settlement building and Israel's 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