Israeli Bullets Injure 500 Palestinians

Abdel Rahman Abdullah was struck in the chest by Israeli fire at the Aida refugee camp, the sources said.

“Five Palestinians were injured by live ammunition and eight by rubber bullets on Monday, while 26 suffered excessive teargas inhalation”, the Red Crescent said. Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly hurt from inhaling tear gas while clashing with security forces in several locations around those cities.

Violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has been on the rise lately, with frequent conflicts breaking out between Palestinians and the Israeli military at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound.

An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, said soldiers fired 22-caliber rifle rounds at “a main instigator” at a riot near Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem.

On Sunday night, an 18-year-old Palestinian was killed during clashes in Tulkarem in the West Bank.

Mr Netanyahu congratulated the security forces on their work and said the Jewish state was using an “iron fist” to crush a rising wave of Palestinian unrest.

There have been warnings in Israeli media of a “third intifada”, with Israeli daily Haaretz writing: “Perhaps it will take just one more death, on either side, for all hell to break loose in a cycle of vicious retribution”. Netanyahu told reporters afterwards that new measures had been enacted to tackle the problem that would include the speedy demolition of the homes of Palestinian stone throwers and “banning those that incite [violence] from the Old City and the Temple Mount.”

On Sunday, the PLO warned that attacks by both Israeli soldiers and settlers indicated “the Israeli government is deliberately creating a situation of violence and instability that threatens to spiral out of control”. In the violent demonstration where Suliman was shot, Israeli officials said the protesters also threw gasoline bombs. A second Palestinian was reported moderately injured in the same clash.