Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli soldiers on 30 March during rallies commemorating the 39th anniversary of Land Day.

Some 200 Protesters at Hawara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus threw stones at Israeli forces who replied with means of riot dispersal, an Israeli military spokesperson said.

Palestinians said several protesters were hurt from smoke inhalation. No arrests were reported. In Jerusalem, a group of protesters clashed with Israeli police near the Old Citys Damascus Gate.

Head of the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic rights Ziad Al-Hammouri said that the Land Day demonstrations are Palestinians way of expressing their strong relationship with their land.

This is (a demonstration) of course; shows all over the world that the Palestinians are connected to their land and they will not, I mean, forgot their land. This is one of the ways to show this relationship with the land, Hammouri said.

An Israeli police spokesperson said that two people were detained for being involved in disturbances and later released.

Land Day is the day Palestinians commemorate the killing of six Arab citizens of the Jewish state by Israeli security forces during protests in 1976 over government land confiscations in northern Israel. Palestinians also staged protests against Israel in Jerusalem and near Ramallah.

Tension has been high between Israel and the Palestinians since peace talks collapsed in April last year. Israeli Arabs make up around 20 percent of the countrys eight-million-strong population.