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Dozens of marchers injured during West Bank marches against wall

Dozens of Palestinians and foreign activists sustained injuries after Israeli soldiers assaulted them Friday during a weekly march against the separation wall and settlement activity in the Bil’in and Ma’sara villages.

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 Dozens of Palestinians and foreign activists sustained injuries after Israeli soldiers assaulted them Friday during a weekly march against the separation wall and settlement activity in the Bil’in and Ma’sara villages.

The Ma’sara village south of Bethlehem saw a mass rally against the apartheid separation wall setting out from the village’s high school.

When reaching the separation wall after roaming local streets, marchers were met by dozens of Israeli occupation soldiers armed with batons, who obstructed the march’s progression, forcing demonstrators to form a sit-in at their place

Mohammed Barijiya, the spokesman for the popular campaign against settlement activity, addressed the crowd in Arabic and Jum’a Zawahira in English discussing the recent increase of settler attacks against Palestinian farmers while harvesting. They also stressed that negotiations with the Israelis were pointless, as Israeli policies on the ground undermine peace efforts.

Amid the talks, Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters, throwing a barrage of tear gas at them, causing dozens of them to faint and become nauseous.

An American activist received wounds to the head after a sound bomb collided with it. He was transported to the hospital with blood dripping over his face.

In another incident, dozens of protesters sustained breathing difficulties after  inhaling tear gas after Israeli soldiers suppressed a weekly march in Bil’in, west of Ramallah.

Before the march, delegations from Germany and France met with members from the Popular Committee to Resist the Wall and Settlement activity in the International Solidarity Movement headquarters in Bil’in, and listened to a detailed explanation from the committee on the experiences of Bil’in in the poplar peaceful resistance in the last five and a half years, its achievements, and the role international activists play in it.

Marchers headed towards the wall where a military force was hiding behind cement blocks behind the wall. When the demonstrators tried to cross to the land behind the fence, which is owned by local residents, soldiers began firing stun grenades, rubber-coated bullets, and gas grenades at them from all directions. Dozens of marchers sustained breathing difficulties in the incident.