Palestinians clashed with Israeli soldiers across the occupied West Bank yesterday in support of hundreds of Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli prisons.
Clashes took place near Israeli settlements and army checkpoints close to several villages in the Ramallah area, as well as by Hebron in the southern West Bank and many other locations further north.
In the village of Silwad Palestinian protesters threw stones at Israeli troops manning a military tower, and soldiers retaliated by firing stun grenades and tear gas at them.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said eight Palestinian were wounded in clashes across the West Bank.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said that around 2,000 Palestinians took part in what she called “violent riots” across the West Bank and had been “dispersed”. She gave no other details.
The clashes — on a day usually dedicated to anti-Israeli protests — came as a hunger strike by hundreds of prisoners in Israeli jails was on its 12th day yesterday.
Palestinian officials says some 1,500 Palestinian prisoners were ingesting only water and salt.
Israeli authorities have put the number of the hunger strikers at 1,200.
The International Committee of the Red Cross — the only organisation that can access Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons — said yesterday ICRC delegates were able to visit hundreds of hunger strikers.
Families of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails demonstrate outside the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City yesterday.
