On Friday, Palestinians were injured in confrontations with the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank during anti-settlement demonstrations, while the Israeli Knesset approved the return to work of a law preventing Palestinian family unification.

In Hebron (south of the West Bank), clashes erupted between Palestinian youths and the occupation soldiers in the center of the city, as a result of which 3 young men and a cameraman cooperating with Anadolu Agency were wounded by rubber bullets.

In the town of Yatta (south of Hebron), video clips documented the Israeli occupation soldiers' assault this morning on Palestinian activists during a search of citizens' homes in Tuwani village.

The Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) said that the occupation forces raided the village, beat the three activists, and fired stun grenades, which terrified the citizens, especially the children.

In the city of Nablus (northern West Bank), 8 Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets or suffocated by tear gas canisters during confrontations in the towns of Beita and Beit Dajan, south and east of the city, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Also in Nablus, the Palestinian News Agency reported that settlers damaged the tires of 15 cars and wrote racist and anti-Arab slogans in the town of Qaryut.

In Qalqilya (in the northern West Bank), the town of Kafr Qaddum witnessed confrontations with the Israeli army, during which Palestinian youths set tires on fire, in refusal to continue closing a vital street for 17 years.

And the Palestinian News Agency reported that dozens of Palestinians suffocated after Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters at the protesters.

The Israeli Knesset during a previous voting session on a law (Reuters - Archive)

Citizenship Law

On the other hand, the Israeli Knesset approved late Thursday evening a bill that restores the so-called "citizenship law" that prevents the unification of Palestinian families in which one of the spouses holds Israeli citizenship, and the other is a resident of the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

Of the 120 Knesset members, 45 voted in favor of the bill and 15 opposed it, while dozens of MKs abstained from voting.

This temporary law was enacted for the first time in 2003 during the second Palestinian intifada as a basic security measure, but its opponents consider it a discriminatory measure targeting the Palestinians inside.

Since its adoption for the first time, the law has not been renewed on July 6 of each year, with the exception of last year, when divisions within the ruling coalition prevented it from gathering the majority needed to pass it.

Today, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) described the Israeli Knesset's ratification of the law as a racist crime.

The movement’s spokesman, Jihad Taha, said in a statement that the renewal of the so-called citizenship law reveals the true face of the occupation based on the dispersal of Palestinian families with the aim of emptying the land of its people, especially the city of Jerusalem, by refusing to include the children of many Jerusalemite families in the civil registry or by not allowing those Families to stay within the city.

Taha called on the United Nations and other organizations to stand against this law, and to shoulder their responsibilities in criminalizing and holding the Israeli occupation accountable.