Several Palestinian have been injured as clashes broke out between the Palestinians and Israeli forces in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil in a protest to Israel’s decision to designate two shrines as Jewish “national heritage sites.”

Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at the stone-throwing Palestinian protesters in Jabal Jouhar, Tareq bin Ziad square, and in At-Takruri districts on the southern end of al-Kalil.

The troops beat the demonstrators with truncheons and arrested two young Palestinians. An Israeli military spokesman claimed that the detainees were “arrested during the violent and illegal riot that took place in Hebron” and taken in for “interrogation.”

Palestinian authorities have called on the international community to pressure Israel to renege on its decision to add the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb to the list of heritage sites as it is in line with Israel’s policy of occupation.

The democratically elected Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has called for uprisings in the occupied West Bank over a controversial Israeli plan to confiscate Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in al-Khalil in a “national heritage plan.”

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Wednesday that Washington viewed the move as provocative and unhelpful to the goal of getting the two sides back to the negotiation table.

Israeli soldiers have shot and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank town of al-Khalil (Hebron) near the Kasba Mosque.

The 41-year-old Fayez Faraj died in the hospital of wounds sustained after Israeli soldiers fatally shot him. They claimed he tried to stab Israeli soldiers patrolling the Kasba Mosque.

The violence broke out as Israeli settlers broke a number of windows.

Clashes spread between Palestinians and Israeli settlers in al-Khalil following the fatal attack.

Al-Khalil, a large Palestinian town where several hundred illegal Israeli settlers live with an Israeli military garrison to protect them, has been the scene of violence instigated by the illegal settlers and Israeli soldiers.

On Thursday, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian and injured two young girls in the Gaza Strip in two separate incidents, the Gaza emergency services reported.

The two girls, aged five and nine, were wounded when an Israeli tank shell exploded near their home close to the Bureij refugee camp.

Jewish fanatic settlers on Saturday night assaulted Palestinian citizens in Iraq Burin village, south of Nablus city, local sources reported.

They noted that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrived to the scene and fired rubber bullets and gas canisters at the citizens wounding one of them in his foot before arresting another.

The villagers threw stones and empty bottle on the IOF troops.

Meanwhile, in Al-Khalil district, the IOF soldiers severely beat up a 13-year-old Palestinian boy near Kiryat Arba settlement on Saturday night.

Locals said that the child Mohammed Da’na was hospitalized.

In the Gaza Strip, Zionist soldiers fired at and detained a Palestinian man northwest of Beit Lahia town to the north of the Strip afternoon Saturday.

Zionist soldiers demolish two Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem Al-Quds, while illegal settlers destroy olive groves as part of efforts to Judaize the city.

Israeli authorities claim that the houses were built without permits, but the Palestinians complain that the Israeli municipality does not issue any permits.

They also accuse Tel Aviv of using demolition tactics to tighten its hold on the occupied territory, and again with the aim of destroying the Islamic identity of Jerusalem Al-Quds.

Residents said that Israel, “which is a racist entity”, is ignoring the international concerns over the practice.

The bulldozers used to demolish the two Palestinian homes, one in Shufat and the other in Sur Bahir on the outskirts of Jerusalem Al-Quds, “were occupation’s (the Israeli regime’s) and not the municipality’s”, they added.

Israel razed 14 other Palestinian homes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Earlier this year, The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, called for a halt to home demolition in East Jerusalem Al-Quds.

According to UN statistics published in May, 1,500 demolition orders issued by the Jerusalem Al-Quds’ municipality were pending for Palestinian dwellings. If the orders were implemented, about 9,000 more Palestinians would be displaced, the report said.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank village of Qaryout, Palestinians found their olive groves destroyed. They said settlers from adjacent settlements destroyed the trees.

A resident of that village said that Jewish settlers attacked them and prevented them from saving their olive trees.

Iran has “strongly condemned” Israel’s constant desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the third-holiest site in Islam.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns the acts of desecration by the Zionist military and the Israeli soldiers’ raids of Al-Aqsa Mosque,” said a foreign ministry spokesman on Wednesday.

He went on to warn Tel Aviv of the “severe consequences” of such offensive moves, and urged Islamic nations to take preventive measures against Israel’s inhumane conduct regarding Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In recent weeks, Israeli forces have twice assaulted the holy compound, and have arrested dozens of Palestinian worshipers, who were trying to protect the mosque.

Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also referred to as Haram al-Sharif, is of significant importance to Muslims. Known as the Temple Mount, the compound contains the holiest site in Judaism.

Muslims across the world believe that the frequent Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is part of a Judaization campaign, targeting the holy city of Al-Quds.

Freelance Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom has reportedly demanded an international war crimes investigation into claims that Israeli soldiers harvest organs of dead Palestinians.

Six weeks after he caused a political storm over his article “Our sons plundered for their organs”, the veteran photojournalist called for an investigation and urged the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other competent tribunals to undertake a thorough and impartial investigation into the allegations that Israelis have unlawfully removed organs from Palestinians.

Bostrom garnered international attention on August 17, after his article was published in Aftonbladet, Sweden’s largest circulation daily.

The article suggests that the Israeli army kidnapped and killed young Palestinians to harvest their organs. It shed light on the case of Bilal Ahmed Ghanem, a 19-year-old Palestinian man, who was shot dead in 1992 by Israeli forces in the West Bank village of Imatin.

Bostrom said Ghanem’s body was abducted following the shooting and was returned at midnight — during an imposed curfew — several days later by the Israeli military with a cut from the stomach to the neck that had been stitched up.

The Swedish argued that an autopsy could have been necessary only if the cause of death was not apparent, while in this case it was clear that Bilal was shot dead.

Following the incident, at least 20 Palestinian families told Bostrom that they suspected the Israeli military had taken the organs of their sons after they had been killed by Israeli forces and their bodies had been taken away.

Israeli soldiers have arrested and taken as many as eight Palestinians into custody following pre-dawn raids in a number of occupied West Bank towns.

According to the Ma’an news agency, those detained in overnight operations were from the cities of Nablus, Ramallah as well as al-Khalil (Hebron). A large number of Israeli troops cordoned off and ransacked the residents’ houses in the areas in pursuit of what they called key documents.

The Israeli army regularly arrests Palestinians during overnight operations in West Bank towns. The detentions are in flagrant violation of a security agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

Tel Aviv claims that those arrested in the raids are ‘wanted activists’ and have been taken for interrogation.

More than 11,500 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently imprisoned in Israeli detention facilities.