The Israeli settlers from Kedumim settlement closed the road connecting the West Bank cities of Nablus and Qalqilyah.
Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian Authority official monitoring settler activity in the northern West Bank, said that the settlers prevented Palestinian travelers from passing.
Daghlas added that the settlers attacked several Palestinians and belted their vehicles with stones. According to the official, "the occupiers smashed the windows of Palestinian cars that approached the area."
He added that the occupiers also chanted racist slogans calling for revenge against the Palestinians.
On Thursday, settlers from Beit-El settlement clocked the Wadi Al-Haramiya (Valley of the Burglars) area, to the north of Ramallah and barred Palestinian travelers from passing.
The road links the central city of Ramallah with northern cities of Nablus, Tulkarm, Qalqilyah and Jenin. The settlers clashed with Palestinians and with Israeli police who arrived to disperse the crowds.
Meanwhile, some 300 of Palestinians, Israeli citizens and foreigners were holding a protest near Bil'in, Ni'lin and Al-Nabi Saleh west of Ramallah against the separation wall.
Palestinian sources said that the Palestinian Haitham Abu Rahmeh was wounded after he was hit in the chest by a tear gas canister. He was evacuated to the Ramallah hospital for treatment.
The sources added that the Israeli soldiers arrested two Palestinian activists; two Israeli and an American were arrested in Bil'in.
In Ni'lin, Palestinian sources said several activists suffered from gas inhalation and several others were lightly wounded when Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters.
Mohammed Amireh, member of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall, said that an olive groove caught fire when Israeli forces fired dozens of tea gas canisters in the area.
Earlier on Friday, the chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called on Israel to recognize its commitments to peace and the signed treaties with the Palestinians and to implement them.
Erekat said in a press statement after a meeting with consuls of European Union countries at his Jericho office that the Israeli commitments to the signed treaties are part of the goodwill gestures and not preconditions.
"Denying and neglecting these commitments and the signed peace treaties were the reasons behind the retreat and the standstill in the Middle East peace process," Erekat said.
The peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) stopped in December 2008.
Palestinians blame the ongoing illegal Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem for the failure of the talks.
The US Administration has demanded that Israel reverse new housing plan in East Jerusalem, which Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has so far rejected.
Mitchell held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah to discuss the resumption of the proximity talks with Israel.
Palestinian sources said that Abbas will give Mitchell the final answer over resuming the proximity talks with Israel on Saturday after the former chairs a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee.
Earlier this week, an Arab League committee renewed its support of the US proposal to start a 4-month proximity talks between the Palestinians and Israel before resuming direct talks over permanent status issues.
Erekat said that the "the opportunity of resuming the peace talks that the PA and the Arab states gave to the US President Barack Obama's administration must be based on the international law."
The chief negotiator added that "otherwise, the practices and policies of the Israeli government will undermine any opportunity to achieve peace, which can never be achieved without the Israeli withdrawal back to 1967 borders."
