Ten Palestinians were wounded on Monday during clashes in a village near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, a Palestinian official and witnesses said. Ghassan Daghlas, an official in charge of tracking settler activity, said six Palestinians were taken to hospital and another four were on the way after being caught up in clashes with settlers in Qusra, some 10 kilometres (six miles) southeast of Nablus. Witnesses said the trouble flared when a large group of settlers began uprooting olive trees near the village. The villagers started throwing stones, prompting a settler to open fire.
"We found a lot of settlers uprooting olive trees and when they saw us they started throwing stones at the children, then a settler brought out his M-16 and started shooting at us", said local witness Raed Awdeh. "Then the army arrived and started shooting rubber bullets and tear gas bombs", he told AFP. Medical sources said that so far they had treated eight Palestinians - four of whom had been hit by live fire, and another four who had been injured by rubber bullets. The other two were lightly injured by rubber bullets and were treated at the scene, they said.