Ramallah, Dec 24 (IANS): Dozens of Palestinian protesters were injuredin clashes with Israeli soldiers in a village northwest of the West Bank city of Nablus, according to medics and witnesses.

At least 42 Palestinians, including a local journalist, were injured by rubber-coated metal gunshots and 83 others suffered from suffocation after inhaling tear gas fired by the Israeli soldiers in the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement on Thursday.

Witnesses in the village told Xinhua news agency that clashes between the demonstrators and the Israeli soldiers broke out earlier on Thursday.

They added that the protesters organised a demonstration against Israeli settlers' assaults and expansion of settlements.

The clashes broke out in the village shortly after hundreds of Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli soldiers, attempted to break into the village, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

In the past few days, the tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been flaring in the West Bank over the Israeli measures.

Two Palestinians were killed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chief of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) told the pro-movement Al-Aqsa TV channel that there is a clear ascending trend of tension in the West Bank as a result of the Israeli occupation practices.

Diplomatic ties between Israel and the Palestinians were interrupted in 2014 due to the latter's rejection of the Jewish state's policies of expanding settlements in East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians want to establish an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel on all the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including the entire West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.