Ramallah, April 15 : Dozens of Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli soldiers in several West Bank towns and villages, authorities said on Saturday. In a statement, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said three people, including a child, were wounded by rubber-coated metal bullets and 40 others suffered respiratory damage after inhaling teargas fired by Israeli soldiers to disperse Palestinians who threw stones at them, reports Xinhua news agency. Fierce clashes broke out between anti-settlement protesters and Israeli soldiers in the villages of Beit Dajan and Beita, near the city of Nablus, as well as in the village of Kafr Qaddum, located east of Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, according to local sources. In Beita village, Palestinians have been protesting against a nearby Israeli settlement that has been allegedly encroaching on the land of the village since May 2021. Israeli authorities have not commented on the incidents yet. Beita and Beit Dajan have been the sites of weekly protests against the expansion of Israeli settlements in the two villages. Official Palestinian figures indicate that over 700,000 Israeli settlers currently reside in 151 settlements scattered around the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel has controlled or blockaded these areas ever since. /IANS