Ramallah, Jan 29 (IANS): Dozens of Palestinian protesters were injured during clashes with Israeli soldiers near three West Bank cities.

Witnesses told Xinhua news agency that fierce clashes broke out on Friday between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers in villages south and east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Ahmad Jibril, emergency director in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, told reporters that Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 13 demonstrators with rubber-coated metal bullets during the clashes.

Clashes also broke out in the southern West Bank city of Hebron and the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, said medics and ewitnesses, adding that Israeli soldiers fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the demonstrators.

There has been no immediate comment of the Israeli army on the clashes that broke out during protests and demonstrations against the confiscation of Palestinian lands and expansion of settlements in the West Bank.