A Palestinian was injured and dozens inhaled tear gas in clashes with Israeli soldiers during Friday's anti-separation protests against a wall that Israel builds in the West Bank, medics and witnesses said.

The witnesses said that dozens of demonstrators gathered in the village of Bel'ein near Ramallah in the West Bank, adding that they chanted slogans against the wall and clashes with the Israeli army forces in the area.

According to the witnesses, the soldiers fired dozens of tear gas canisters and rubber-coated metal bullets at the demonstrators who gather every Friday and demonstrate in the area against the wall that confiscated the residents' lands.

Foreign and Israeli peace activists usually join the protests in the village that are carried out every Friday afternoon. The demonstrators demanded Israel to stop building the wall and stop confiscation of the residents' lands.

The demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and carried banners with slogans that condemn the Israeli security measures and the expansion of Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

Palestinian medics at Ramallah governmental hospital said one Palestinian activist was shot and wounded, while dozens inhaled tear gas and suffered suffocation, adding they were treated in the field.

The demonstrators had also called on rival Fatah party which controls the West Bank and Islamic Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip for unity, ending their feuds and signing a reconciliation agreement.

Similar protests had also taken place south of the West bank city of Bethlehem, where Israeli soldiers dispersed a peaceful demonstration against the wall by rubber bullets and tear gas, said the witnesses.

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2010)