Israeli forces faced off with Palestinian stone-throwers in the West Bank on Tuesday during the annual Nakba Day protests over the "catastrophe" that befell the Palestinians in 1948. At Beitunia checkpoint near Ramallah, youths hurled stones at troops, who fired tear gas, metal pellets and rubber bullets in a bid to break up the demonstration, an AFP correspondent said.
Many protesters could be seen with blood on their faces as they waved black flags and roared angry slogans. Clashes also broke out at Qalandiya checkpoint south of Ramallah, where youths threw stones at Israeli troops, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them, AFP correspondents said. A source at Ramallah's government hospital told AFP that 17 people had been injured by rubber bullets, 15 at Beitunia and another two at Qalandia.
There were also reports of clashes in Hebron and at Rachel's Tomb on the edge of Bethlehem, where the Israeli military said 200 protesters confronted troops. Two soldiers were lightly injured, a spokesman said. The protesters were commemorating the "Nakba," when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in the war that accompanied Israel's declaration of independence.
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