This Friday, in Hebron Stop the Wall had joined the Hebron Defense Committee (HDC) and national political parties to mark the Open Shuhada Street Action Day. Amidsts other activities, the Friday protest was the culmination of the mobilization. The protest started at Bab Izzawiya near “Checkpoint 56” and proceeded then to Hebron’s old city.
A steel and concrete barrier blocking off Shuhada Street along the path of the demonations was scaled by several youths who planted several Palestinian national and political flags on top.
The march was then blocked by heavy Israeli military presence, which placed barbed wire barricades across the street effectively stopping Palestinians to walk on their own roads. Israeli occupation forces used sound bombs and tear gas to disperse marchers. Demonstrators who later regrouped and returned were met with “skunk” water, a foul-smelling liquid that is sprayed from a water cannon.
One person was injured in the leg by a live bullet while 12, including one journalist, were injured by rubber coated steel bullets. Many had to be brought to the hospital due to gas inhalation.”
Palestinian Authority police and special forces pushed demonstrators away out of the Old City and restricted them from demonstrating later in the afternoon.
In Salfit area, the Israeli occupation forces suppressed the same day a demonstration organized by Stop the Wall, to protest the takeover by the occupation of land belonging to citizens of the villages of Hares and Bruqin in the province of Salfit. The land theft is aimed at clearing space in order to build factories belonging to the settlement of "Ariel", which itself is built on land belonging to the two towns.
And Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades and gas towards the protestors who had moved after Friday prayers to the stolen land. One person was injured and dozens suffered from suffocation.