- Violence flared after death of Mohammed Sinokrot, 16, last week. The circumstances of his death are disputed
- Protestors threw rocks and petrol bombs at cars and Israeli riot police
- Police officers responded by firing rubber bullets in most serious uprising in Jerusalem in a decade
Scores
of Palestinians rioted in East Jerusalem today after hearing that a
youth from their neighbourhood had died of wounds suffered in a clash
with Israeli police last week.
Protesters
in the neighbourhood of Wadi al-Joz close to the walled Old City threw
rocks, petrol bombs and flares at passing cars, and riot officers
responded with rubber bullets during an afternoon of clashes that lasted
for several hours. There were no reports of serious injury.
Mohammed
Sinokrot, 16, succumbed to a head wound suffered during a protest a
week ago but the circumstances of how he sustained the wound were in
dispute.
Anger: Palestinian youths fire flares
at Israeli police during clashes sparkled by the death of a teenager,
who they claim was killed by Israeli police
Response: Riot officers fired rubber bullets at the rioters during an afternoon of clashes that lasted for several hours
His
father, Abdel-Majid, said his son had been hit in the head by a rubber
bullet but Israeli police said Sinokrot had been hit in the leg with a
foam projectile and had fallen and hit his head while running away from
officers.
The
body was taken for a post-mortem examination in Tel Aviv and the
Israeli Justice Ministry's police investigations unit was examining the
circumstances of the case, a police spokesman said.
Street
clashes with police in riot gear, military-style raids on homes late at
night and stone-throwing at Israeli vehicles have marked the most
serious outbreak of violence in Jerusalem since a Palestinian uprising a
decade ago.
Mohammed Sinokrot, 16, succumbed to a
head wound suffered during a protest a week ago but the circumstances of
how he sustained the wound are in dispute
Street clashes with police in riot
gear, military-style raids on homes late at night and stone-throwing at
Israeli vehicles have marked the most serious outbreak of violence in
Jerusalem since a Palestinian uprising a decade ago
A Palestinian youth hurl stones at
Israeli policemen during the violence. The seething tensions have
underscored divisions in the Israeli-occupied part of the city
Israel captured East Jerusalem along with Gaza and the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War
The
violent protests in the city have been raging almost nightly beyond the
spotlight on the Gaza war, leading to a crackdown by Israeli police in
which hundreds of Palestinians have been detained.
The
protests erupted in July after the murder of a Palestinian teen in an
alleged revenge attack by three Jews, who are standing trial. That
followed the killing of three Israeli youths in the occupied West Bank
by Hamas Islamist militants.
The
seething tensions have underscored deepening divisions in the
Israeli-occupied part of the city that Israel claims as its 'indivisible
capital'.
Damage
caused by Palestinians to a Jerusalem light railway, which links Arab
and Jewish neighbourhoods and was once hailed by Israeli authorities as a
symbol of coexistence, had put a third of its carriages out of
commission.
A Palestinian youth uses a catapult to fire rocks at riot officers in the Wadi Joz area of East Jerusalem
The rioters use a large wheeled bin as a makeshift barrier. The dead teenager's father blamed Israeli police for his son's death
Much of the anti-Israeli violence in
recent years in Jerusalem has flared at the sacred compound in Old City
where al Aqsa mosque is located and which Jews revere as the site of two
destroyed Biblical temples
Day of rage: Palestinian youth take cover behind a wall as they hurl stones at Israeli policemen
Some 40 per cent of Jerusalem's
800,000 residents are Palestinians. They have Israeli-issued identity
cards that entitle them - as residents of a city that Israel regards as
part of the Jewish state - to the same civil rights and state-funded
services afforded Israeli citizens
Israel
captured East Jerusalem along with Gaza and the West Bank in the 1967
Six Day War. It annexed the city shortly afterwards and passed a law in
1980 that declared all of Jerusalem its capital, a move not recognised
internationally.
Some
40 per cent of Jerusalem's 800,000 residents are Palestinians. They
have Israeli-issued identity cards that entitle them - as residents of a
city that Israel regards as part of the Jewish state - to the same
civil rights and state-funded services afforded Israeli citizens.
But
many see Israeli settlement construction in annexed areas of Jerusalem
and restrictions on access to the al Aqsa mosque in the historic Old
City, which Israel says stem from security concerns, as attempts to
change the nature of the city.
Much
of the anti-Israeli violence in recent years in Jerusalem has flared at
the sacred compound in Old City where al Aqsa mosque is located and
which Jews revere as the site of two destroyed Biblical temples.
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