A 17-year-old Palestinian man was killed at the weekend by Israeli forces during clashes in the village of Silat al-Harithiya, near Jenin, in the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced overnight.
Army fires after riots
In a statement, the Israeli army said it had entered the village “to demolish the floor of the building where the terrorist Muhammad Jaradat resided”, specifying that the latter was accused of the recent shooting murder of an Israeli settler in West Bank.
Still according to the army, “violent riots” then broke out in the village “with the participation of hundreds of Palestinians”, some of whom threw explosive devices at the Israeli soldiers. “The troops identified a number of armed rioters and fired in their direction in an effort to neutralize the threat,” the army added in its statement, without directly reporting the death of the young Palestinian. Israeli forces regularly destroy the homes of Palestinians accused of attacks against Israelis in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.
Far-right Israeli lawmaker moves to Palestinian neighborhood
Meanwhile, riots erupted in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem on Sunday, injuring 31 Palestinians, several of whom were hospitalized, after a far-right Israeli lawmaker set up an office there. . In the evening, the Israeli police tried to disperse the demonstrators using water cannons and rubber bullets.
The Israeli police said in a statement that they had arrested two rioters, while throwing objects and clashes raged between Palestinian residents and Israeli settlers, in this epicenter of tensions between the two communities.
Sunday morning, Itamar Ben Gvir, deputy of the extreme right formation “Religious Zionism”, had gone to Sheikh Jarrah to open a parliamentary office and support the Jewish inhabitants of the district, after a suspected arson Friday of a house. where a Jewish family lived.
The deputy accused the police of having violently dismantled the tent which served as his office, promising to “stay here to sleep” for the night.
Several of the deputy’s supporters joined him in the neighborhood, chanting “Death to terrorists”. On the other side, a group of Israelis opposed to the lawmaker circulated an online petition calling on people to come to Sheikh Jarrah to support the Palestinians.
A fight even broke out between the deputy mayor of Jerusalem and an Israeli Arab MP who came to the neighborhood to express his solidarity with the Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority condemns
The Islamist movement Hamas warned Israel in a statement “of the consequences of the repeated attacks on the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah”. A regular area of tension between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, the neighborhood experienced violent clashes last May during demonstrations in support of Palestinian families threatened with eviction.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the opening of this office in a press release, denouncing a “provocation threatening to ignite the situation”.
EU denounces “provocations”
“These irresponsible provocations and any other act of escalation in this sensitive sector will inflame tensions and must end,” the European Union (EU) representation in the Palestinian Territories wrote on Twitter.
More than 300,000 Palestinians and 210,000 Israelis now live in East Jerusalem, in the part occupied and annexed by Israel since 1967.