Eleven Palestinians were shot dead in clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Friday, May 14, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The latest of Friday’s fatalities, Nizar Abu Zeineh, 22, was hit in the chest by a live round fired by Israeli forces near the village of Shwaika, north of Tulkarm. Abu Zeineh had been among dozens of protesters demonstrating in support of Gaza and Jerusalem when he was mortally wounded. He was rushed to a hospital in Tulkarm where he succumbed to his wounds within minutes of his arrival.

Palestinian demonstrators in the city of Hebron, Friday, May 14 (Photo: WAFA)

Following the deadly incident in Shwaika, clashes continued there and spread to the neighboring villages of Ramin, Bizzariya, Beit Lid and Far’oun, with 29 Palestinians reportedly being injured in clashes with occupation forces.

Mass protests had erupted across the West Bank beginning late Thursday-early Friday in response to the ongoing Israeli aggression against Gaza, Jerusalem and the Arab-Palestinian towns in Israel. Israeli occupation forces used live ammunition in most of the West Bank protests. They also reportedly  opened live gunfire on journalists who were covering these protests.

Raed Sharif, a journalist, told the Palestinian news agency WAFA that Israeli soldiers directed gunfire at him and several other media personnel covering clashes in the neighborhood of Zeef in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Sharif said that he and other journalists were positioned in an area far from the scene of the clashes when they suddenly came under gunfire, apparently in an attempt to drive them out of the area to prevent them from covering human rights violations by Israel. Mash’hour Wihwah, a photographer for WAFA, was among the journalists targeted by the Israeli gunfire.