UPDATE 2 - 73 Palestinians injured in clashes with Israeli army in West Bank

UPDATE WITH NUMBER OF INJURIES, STATEMENT BY PALESTINIAN RED CRESCENT, REVISES HEADLINE, LEDE

By Qais Abu Samra, Mustafa Deveci and Gulsen Topcu

RAMALLAH, JERUSALEM, Palestine (AA) - Some 73 Palestinians were injured on Friday in clashes with the Israeli army in the northern occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces fired live ammunition, rubber bullets, and tear gas canisters on Palestinians staging rallies across West Bank, including in the northern town of Kafr Qaddum, Qalqilya and the town of Beita, south of Nablus, as part of their daily protests against illegal Israeli settlements, which began in recent weeks.

In retaliation, Palestinians pelted Israeli police with stones.

In Friday's demonstrations, four Palestinians were injured, one of them critically, by live ammunition and 69 others by rubber bullets, the Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement.

A total of 335 demonstrators were affected by tear gas, it added in a statement.

Four Palestinian protesters were killed in previous clashes in the town of Beita.

Israel has been establishing a settlement outpost, known as Avitar, after occupying around 1,000 square meters of land in the town's Jabal Sabih neighborhood, triggering the protests.

Israeli and Palestinian estimates indicate that there are about 650,000 settlers in West Bank settlements, including occupied Jerusalem, living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal.

Israeli police began allowing the settler incursions in 2003, despite repeated condemnations from the Islamic Endowment Department in Jerusalem.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar and Zehra Nur Duz in Ankara.