WEST BANK (NBC) — Israeli forces fired tear gas to disperse dozens of Palestinians protesting against a newly-created Jewish settlers outpost in the West Bank Friday morning.
The protesters were trying to take part in a tree-planting event near the village of Beit Dajan next to the West Bank city of Nablus, an act aimed to draw attention to what Palestinians say is settlers taking over their land in the West Bank.
Several protesters were taken away in ambulances after inhaling tear gas.
The protesters performed traditional Muslim Friday prayers in a field.
For more than three decades, the Palestinians have sought an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories seized by Israel in the 1967 war.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but imposed a crippling blockade when the Palestinian militant group Hamas seized power in 2007.
There have been no substantive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians since.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was first elected more than a decade ago and the two sides are fiercely divided over the core issues of the conflict.
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