JERUSALEM
At least 20 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli police in occupied East Jerusalem near the home of a Palestinian man killed last night by Israeli soldiers.
Clashes broke out Thursday afternoon in the Silwan neighborhood, where Israeli forces used stun grenades, rubber bullets and teargas to disperse stone-throwing Palestinian youths, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent.
Palestinian protesters also torched a car during the clashes. Israeli fire fighters arrived to put out the fire.
Earlier Thursday, Israeli forces killed Moataz Hegazi – who had been suspected of shooting an extremist rabbi one day earlier – in a raid on his East Jerusalem home.
Eyewitnesses told AA that Israeli forces had also arrested Hegazi's father, mother and brother during the raid.
Following the incident, clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters in Hegazi's Al-Thawri neighborhood and in the Silwan and Isawiya districts.
Eyewitnesses said shops in Jerusalem's Old City had been shut in the wake of the clashes.
Israeli Police said Hegazi – who reportedly spent several years in an Israeli prison before being released in 2012 – had been killed when he opened fire on police while resisting arrest in East Jerusalem.
Three other Palestinians were injured in the Israeli police raid, eyewitnesses said.
Extremist Jewish Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who was seriously injured in the shooting incident, is known for frequently leading groups of Jewish settlers into Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Following the rabbi's shooting on Wednesday night, Israeli authorities shut the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound indefinitely for the first time since Israel's 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
In September 2000, a visit to the site by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon sparked what later became known as the "Second Intifada," a popular uprising against the Israeli occupation in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.
www.aa.com.tr/en
