QALANDIYA (West Bank): Twenty people were lightly hurt on Friday when Israeli troops dispersed protests against the Jewish state's controversial separation barrier in the occupied West Bank, medics said.

Fourteen protesters, including Palestinian and Israeli peace activists, were wounded after soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas to break up a demonstration in the village of Bilin, medical sources and witnesses said.

Another four Palestinians were wounded in further clashes between protesters and Israeli soldiers in Qalandiya, which has been severed from Jerusalem by a stretch of towering wall making up the barrier, the sources said.

At Bethlehem, Israeli troops broke up a third demonstration against the barrier, wounding two Palestinians, medical sources said.

Later clashes erupted between young Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli soldiers at the entrance to the town, similarly separated from Jerusalem by a slice of cement wall, witnesses said.

Israel justifies its massive barrier, made up of electric fencing, barbed wire and concrete walls, on the basis of the need to stop potential attackers from infiltrating the country and settlements in the West Bank.-—AFP