News - Middle East: Dozens of Palestinians are injured as illegal Israeli settlers continue waging unabated violence across the occupied West Bank under strict protection provided for the latter by the Israeli military.

One Palestinian sustained a gunshot wound while many others suffered suffocation as the army-backed settlers tried to storm the city of Dayr Dibwan, east of the city of Ramallah, on Friday, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

The settlers "set fire at the [Dayr Dibwan's] entrance, but local youths, who were on alert, courageously confronted them, forcing them to retreat," the agency reported.

The casualties were caused as the Israeli troops, who were accompanying the aggressors, attacked the Palestinians with live rounds and teargas canisters.

"Elsewhere in Ramallah district, a few dozen settlers, under army protection, gathered at the western entrance of Beitin village, close to al-Bireh city, and pelted Palestinian vehicles passing nearby with stones, causing damage to them," the agency added.

Another group of settlers hurled stones towards Palestinian-owned vehicles in the al-Fahs area, south of the city of al-Khalil (Hebron) in the southern West Bank, smashing their windshields.

The developments came a day after a group of settlers stormed the village of Urif south of the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank. The attackers then forced their way into a local mosque and vandalized it before ripping the pages of a copy of the Holy Qur'an and throwing it into the street.

The act of desecration has prompted far-and-wide outrage across the Muslim world.

More than a dozen Palestinians have also been killed in violence staged either by the Israeli military or armed Israeli settlers so far this week.

The fatalities include a Palestinian male, who was killed on Wednesday when hundreds of the settlers went on a rampage across the village of Turmus Ayya in north-central West Bank.

More than 700,000 Israelis live in 279 settlements built across the occupied West Bank since Tel Aviv's occupation of the territory in 1967.

The international community regards the settlements as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions given that they have been constructed on occupied land.

Source: Press TV