Five Palestinians were injured, two critically, when Israeli occupation forces opened up with live fire on the weekly march at Kafr Qaddum on Friday, June 12. A coordinator for the popular resistance committee of the village, Murad Shtewi, said to Ma’an News Agency that Muhammad Majid, 20, had been shot in the stomach and chest with live rounds and is in critical condition. Ibrahim Mousa, 35, is also in critical condition after he was shot in the abdomen while in his house.

A demonstrator hurls a stone at an Israeli army bulldozer during the weekly demonstration against the occupation in the West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum, October 25, 2013. (Photo: Activestills)

Shtewi also said that Muhammad Nidal, 20, and Mouiz Khader had been shot in the leg, and Ayman Farouq, 38, in the hand. Dozens others suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation. Israeli forces had closed down the village’s entrance since the early morning after they declared it a closed military zone. As a result, those injured had to be evacuated from the village in private cars using dirt roads. Israeli occupation forces regularly declare the village of Kafr Qaddum to be a closed military zone in order to prevent the weekly march conducted there from taking place. The march is carried out to protest the Israeli separation wall and Israeli settlement activity, both illegal under international law.