Four injured in Israeli raid on Palestinian refugee camp

At least four Palestinians have sustained injuries in the occupied West Bank during clashes with Israeli forces, who were trying to arrest a group of young men.

Local sources said dozens of Israeli troops raided Dheisheh refugee camp, which lies just south of Bethlehem, early on Thursday.

Violence broke out when residents of the refugee camp resisted the troops who fired steel-coated rubber bullets as well as tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd.

Four Palestinian youths were injured during the skirmishes, while four others were arrested and taken away.

Separately, Israeli forces arrested at least 16 Palestinians, including veteran prisoners and university students, during overnight raids on a number of houses across the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian sources said the arrests were made during Israeli raids in Nablus and Bethlehem.

The occupied territories have witnessed a fresh bout of tensions ever since Israeli forces introduced restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in August 2015.

Palestinians say Tel Aviv seeks to change the status quo of the site, which is Islam’s third holiest site after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina in Saudi Arabia. It is also highly respected by Jews and Christians.

More than 220 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of last October.