Palestinian man succumbs to Israeli gunshot wounds

Ramallah/Gaza, Aug 26

A 20-year-old Palestinian has succumbed to wounds he sustained during an Israeli military offensive in the northern West Bank city of Jenin in early July, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement.

Izz Aldin Kan'aan died in the hospital due to a severe head injury he sustained from Israeli soldiers' gunfire, it added on Friday.

On Friday, dozens of Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and near the border area between Israel and the eastern Gaza Strip during protests, Palestinian sources said.

In a statement, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that at least 25 Palestinians suffered suffocation after inhaling teargas fired by Israeli soldiers during clashes in the village of Kafr Qaddum near the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, Xinhua news agency reported.

Murad Ishteiwi, coordinator of the popular resistance committee in the village, told Xinhua that Israeli soldiers stormed the village and used teargas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who condemned the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The PRCS statement also said that 13 Palestinians suffered suffocation after inhaling teargas fired by Israeli soldiers during clashes that broke out in the village of Beit Dajan near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

In Gaza, three Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli soldiers stationed at the border between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the clashes.

For several years, the Palestinians have been organising weekly demonstrations in villages and towns in the West Bank to denounce Israeli settlement expansion and land confiscation.

Since January, 33 people, most of them Israelis, have been killed in a series of attacks carried out by Palestinians, and more than 200 Palestinians, including children and women, were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers, according to official figures.