RAMALLAH (Dispatches) – Five Palestinians were injured by Zionist troops’ fire while 19 others detained in raids in the occupied West Bank on Monday, according to state media and a local NGO.
Zionist troops stationed at Dutan military checkpoint, southwest of Jenin, opened fire at four Palestinians near the town of Yabad, the state news agency WAFA reported.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said one of the injured was in serious condition.
A Palestinian medic was also hurt after being attacked by Zionist troops while providing medical attention to the injured, WAFA reported.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Prisoner Society NGO said that 19 Palestinians were detained by Zionist troops during military raids in the cities of Bethlehem, Al-Khalil, Nablus and Ramallah.
There was no comment from the occupying regime’s military on the report.
Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank in recent months amid repeated Zionist raids into Palestinian towns along with attacks and assaults carried out by settlers who are usually guarded by the Israeli army.
More than 200 Palestinians have been killed by the occupying regime’s troops since the start of this year, according to the Health Ministry.
In a latest development, more than 170 settlers, under heavy protection by the regime forces, have broken into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of Al-Quds in the latest act of provocation against the sacred site.
Palestine’s Shehab news agency said the settlers entered the courtyards of the holy site through the Moroccan Gate, also known as the Mughrabi Gate, and made a provocative tour of the premises on Sunday.
The regime had since morning deployed soldiers inside and around the mosque to secure the intrusion.
The Islamic Endowment Department in Al-Quds was cited by Palestine’s Safa News Agency as saying that 173 settlers provocatively performed rituals and Talmudic prayers at Bab al-Rahma (Gate of Mercy) area, in violation of the site’s status quo.
Zionist troops prevented Palestinian worshipers from entering the mosque.
Settler incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque and violence against Palestinians have been on the rise since the cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office last December.
Such mass settler break-ins almost always take place at the behest of Tel Aviv-backed temple groups and under the auspices of the regime’s police in Al-Quds, leading to daily confrontations with Palestinians at the mosque, with many injured, arrested and killed.
Non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited according to an agreement between the occupying regime and Jordan following the regime’s seizure of East Al-Quds in 1967.