HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli troops clashed with dozens of stone-throwing protesters Friday in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at crowds who had approached a military checkpoint protecting Jewish settlers.
It was the most serious violence in a series of demonstrations carried out in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday meant to mark the 13th anniversary of the second Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Hebron is a frequent site of clashes. Several hundred hard-line Jewish settlers live in heavily fortified enclaves in the biblical city, home to some 170,000 Palestinians. Tensions there were further heightened this week when an Israeli soldier was killed by a Palestinian sniper who remains at large.
The clashes erupted when youths, some of their faces covered with ski masks or Palestinian headdresses, began pelting a military checkpoint that protects a Jewish settler enclave. Protesters lit piles of garbage on fire and threw the stones behind walls of smoke. Palestinian security forces also attempted to prevent stone-throwing.
