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RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces injured three Palestinian youths during an early morning raid in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday.

Locals told Ma'an that Israeli special forces raided a building in central Ramallah, smashing the doors and searching offices that belonged to the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI), a Palestinian political party headed by Mustafa Barghouti.

Clashes erupted in the area, leaving three youths wounded after Israeli forces opened live fire on Palestinian youth in the neighborhood, who threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at the Israeli soldiers, locals said.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that “dozens of rioters threw pipe bombs, firebombs, and rocks at Israeli soldiers” early on Wednesday, adding that Israeli forces responded with “riot dispersal means, including shooting tear gas and rubber-coated (steel) bullets at the instigators.”

However, the spokesperson said she was not aware of the use of live ammunition on the Palestinian protesters.

Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Saeb Erekat quickly condemned the raid on PNI offices, adding that Israeli forces had stolen servers, computers, cameras, and folders containing information.

"Dr. Barghouthi is a distinguished national leader, member of our parliament and of the PLO Central Council, and one of the main advocates in Palestine for the non-violent resistance against the Israeli occupation," the statement read.

Erekat emphasized that the raid was part of at least 22 Israeli military raids that were carried out within a 24-hour time frame across the occupied Palestinian territory.

Referring to the alleged targeting of the PNI offices in Ramallah, Erekat said that the Israeli government had "stepped up its efforts against peaceful resistance," while urging the international community to support the "popular resistance against the Israeli occupation by taking concrete actions against the daily Israeli aggressions against our people, settlement expansion and home demolitions."

Israeli forces have come under repeated criticism for excessive use of force, as well as dangerous methods of crowd control which often result in death or injury of protesters.

In August, a report released by Palestinian NGO Badil documented the Israeli army’s targeting of Palestinian youth with live fire in Bethlehem’s al-Duheisha refugee camp, specifically shooting youth in the kneecaps and legs.

The investigation was launched after reports emerged of an Israeli army commander responsible for Bethlehem’s three refugee camps making repeated threats to make “all youth in the camp disabled.”

The NGO has said that the threats "reinforce the claim made by BADIL that these threats and actions are not accidental or isolated incidents, but rather result from a systematic Israeli military policy aimed at suppressing resistance, terrorizing Palestinian youth, and causing permanent injuries and damage to their physical and mental well-being."

"These willful and grave breaches of international law trigger the obligations of third party states and other mandated agencies to put an end to this climate of impunity under which Israeli forces and its officials operate," the group added.