A Palestinian protester wearing a gas mask raises his national flag while standing amidst teargas smoke fired by Israeli troop during clashes following a demonstration in support of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails and against the expropriation of land by Israel, in the village of Kfar Qaddum near Nablus in the West Bank yesterday.

AFP
Bilin, West Bank

Protesters clashed with Israeli troops in the northern West Bank yesterday during annual demonstrations marking Palestinian Prisoners Day.
More than 100 Palestinians rallied near Israel’s separation barrier in the village of Bilin, with some throwing stones before soldiers opened up with teargas to disperse the crowd.
One protester was wounded, a correspondent said, either from a gas canister or rubber bullet.
Prisoners Day is marked every year in solidarity with the more than 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails.
“We will not leave our prisoners in jail alone,” rally organiser Abdullah Abu Rahma said.
“We will defend their right to be released, because the majority of them have been arrested illegally by Israeli forces.”
With Israel having arrested some 800,000 Palestinians in the occupied territories since 1967 - equivalent to 40% of the male population - almost every Palestinian family has been affected.
During the last round of US-backed peace talks in 2013 and 2014, Israel freed dozens of long-term inmates.
But after the negotiations broke down, and following the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, Israel arrested hundreds more.
The current number of Palestinian prisoners is the highest for at least five years, according to figures from rights groups.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks yesterday with potential partners to form a coalition government, less than three weeks from a deadline to form a new cabinet.
Netanyahu met separately with Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman, head of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu, and with Naftali Bennett, of the far-right Jewish Home.
Media said he spent one and a half hours with Bennet in their first private talks for more than two weeks.
“The meeting lasted an hour and a half and the two agreed to work together to form the next government,” news site Ynet reported.
Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party won Israel’s March 17 general election but without a majority, and he has initially until April 22 to form a coalition.
If he needs more time he could by law request an additional two weeks to try and form a coalition.
If no government is found past that date, the president could task another party to form a coalition or the country can go to a fresh election.
Before heading to his meeting at Netanyahu’s official Jerusalem residence, Lieberman told public radio he was going to discuss policy, not prospective portfolios.
“We want to sum up principles, on the death penalty for terrorists, the eradication of the Hamas regime,” Lieberman said.
“There are many things that we need to nail down.”  
Ayelet Shaked, co-founder of the Jewish Home, said Bennett wanted Netanyahu to spell out the ideology of the future government and to scotch talk of a wall-to-wall coalition with the centre-left Zionist Union party.



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