Roundup: Palestinians mark Land Day with rallies, protests

The Palestinians in various towns and cities in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and in Israel marked on Monday the 39th anniversary for the Land Day amid rallies, demonstrations, protests and symbolic activities.

Medical sources in the West Bank said that 35 Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the town of Howara, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The sources added that the Israeli soldiers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators marking the Land Day.

Before clashes broke out between dozens of demonstrators and the Israeli soldiers, the rally was held on a Palestinian-owned land that is warned to be confiscated by Israel. Among the 35 wounded in the protests was Waleed Assaf, a lawmaker in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Party.

Mahmoud Aloul, a member in Fatah Party Central Committee, told Xinhua that the protest near Nablus was peaceful and was a message of Palestinian rejection to the ongoing Israeli occupation policies, mainly the expansion of settlements and confiscation of land.

"The Israeli army repression of Palestinian peaceful protests will not break our determination to continue with our struggle against the Israeli policies of imposing a siege on Gaza, expanding settlements and confiscating lands in the West Bank," said Aloul.

The medical sources said that a Palestinian child was moderately injured after he was hit by a tear gas canister at the entrance of the town of Silwad, east of the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Witnesses said that the cities of Hebron, Bethlehem, Tulkarem and Jenin also witnessed clashes and protests after they marked the Land Day with waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans calling for the end of the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said in an emailed press statement that marking the Land Day "is a Palestinian reiteration that they will never stop their struggle against the Israeli occupation and its settlers."

The PLO called on the international community, mainly the countries that sponsor the peace process in the Middle East "to immediately impose a permanent peace solution on Israel that ends all its measures, end the occupation and establish a Palestinian state."

Various political powers and factions in the West Bank also said in a joint press statement to mark the Land Day that they are sticking to resistance and to the principle of defending the land against the Israeli occupation measures and against the settlers and the roadblocks.

In the Gaza Strip, where there is no Israeli military occupation presence inside the territory, around 400 male and female artists and painters drew various portraits on the walls to mark the Land Day. The activity was organized by the Society for Free Culture and Opinion.

Lama Shakshak, a 15-year-old artist, told Xinhua as she drew a wall portrait of a Palestinian woman holding the Palestinian traditional scarf known as al-Kofeya in one hand, "it is our right to have a state, a homeland," adding this is a message of challenge to the Israeli occupation.

Fatema Abu Sultan, a 14-year-old artist, told Xinhua that the Palestinians will never give up demanding their freedom, and gaining back their confiscated lands. She drew a portrait on the wall of an olive tree with deep roots into the ground as a symbolic image to the state of Palestine.

Meanwhile, dozens demonstrated in Gaza city's downtown, waving Palestinian flags and banners to mark the Land Day. During the rally, several speakers called for an end to the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state. Endit