Errab Foqoha, the spokesman for the al-Bireh-based PRCS, said a total of 143 Palestinians were injured during Tuesday skirmishes in the West Bank. According to the PRCS spokesman, at least 22 Palestinians were shot by live rounds, 50 were hit by rubber-coated steel bullets, 61 suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, and 10 suffered injuries after being directly physically assaulted. Tensions have been running high in the occupied territories between the Israeli regime and Palestinians over the past several weeks. The latest wave of tensions was triggered by Israel's imposition in August of restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem). On Tuesday evening , a 23-year-old Palestinian, identified as Hammam Said, was shot and killed after he allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint in the Tel Rumeida area of the southern occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), situated 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of al-Quds (Jerusalem). Earlier in the day, Israeli forces fatally shot two Palestinians in the illegal Gush Etzion settlement, south of Bethlehem, after they allegedly stabbed an Israeli soldier at a bus stop. The slain Palestinians were later identified as 17-year-old Shabaan Abu Shkeidem, and 22-year-old Shadi Nabil Abd al-Muti Dweik, both of whom came from al-Khalil. The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 64 Palestinians have lost their lives since the beginning of the month. Some 7,100 others have sustained injuries at the hands of Israeli forces. The number of Israelis killed in the same period has been put at ten, while 130 others have been injured. Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina, and restrictions imposed by Israel on entry into the compound has enraged Palestinians, who are also angry at increasing violence by Israeli settlers, who frequently storm the al-Aqsa Mosque. The Palestinians say the Tel Aviv regime seeks to change the status quo of the compound.
