Jerusalem violence continues with attack on Jewish car in Arab neighborhood
Riots in East Jerusalem following death of suspected gunman in Glick shooting; police respond with tear gas; local resident says situation 'becoming like another Intifada'.
The violence that has rocked Jerusalem for days continued Thursday evening, when an Israeli Jew came under a hail of stones as he drove through the predominantly Arab eastern part of the city, in an attack that he says was a premeditated ambush.
"In the middle of Wadi Joz, a car pulled out of one of the garages and stopped the traffic at the scene," Roi Gifman, 24, told Ynet. "Suddenly, the two youths put their heads into my car through the window, checked that I was Jewish, and began to throw stones."
"A barrage of 13-15 stones was thrown at the vehicle and suddenly at least another 10 youths began to approach, and threw stones and smashed my entire rear window. Everything was just crushed, there was nothing left, I just waiting for the car in front to move, I put my foot down and fled. I feel as though I survived, thank God."
There was also an incident of stone-throwing at a bus in East Talpiot on Thursday. One of the panes in the bus windows shattered and a passenger aged about 70 sustained light wounds to her shoulder.
Earlier Thursday, crowds of young Palestinian men and boys blocked off streets in East Jerusalem, close to where the prime suspect in Wednesday's attempted assassination of Israeli right-wing activist Yehuda Glick was shot dead in the dawn hours.
The Palestinian protesters used rubbish skips to block the roads and lit fires. They smashed tiles and bricks and used the pieces to throw at Israeli police, masking their faces with bandannas or pulling hooded tops around their heads.
Police responded with tear gas, scattering the crowd. Clashes continued for hours after Hijazi was killed in a shoot-out with special forces early Thursday morning.
The suspected gunman's body lay in blood among satellite dishes and a solar panel on the rooftop of a three-story house in Abu Tor, a district of Arab East Jerusalem, as Israeli forces sealed off the area and repelled stone-throwing Palestinian protesters.
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"It is not a good situation, it is the worst, everyone is angry," said Galib Abu Nejmeh, 65, who wandered down the rock-strewn street dressed in a smart brown suit and tie.
"It is becoming like another Intifada," he said, comparing it to the scenes in East Jerusalem in the late 1980s, when Palestinians first rose up against Israeli occupation.
One Abu Tor resident, an elderly Arab man with a walking stick who declined to be named, described Hijazi as a troublemaker and said "he should have been shot 10 years ago". Others said he was a good son from a respectable family.
"They are good people, he does nothing wrong," said Niveen, a young woman who declined to give her family name.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups, praised the shooting of Glick and mourned Hijazi's death.
Glick, a prominent right-wing activist and rabbi, was shot at point-blank range by motorcyclist believed to have been Hijazi in Jerusalem on Wednesday night, as he left a conference entitled "Israel Returns to the Temple Mount", at the Menachem Begin Heritage Centre in Jerusalem late Wednesday.
A spokesman for the center said Hijazi had worked at a restaurant there. Glick, 48, remains in serious but stable condition with four gunshot wounds, doctors at Shaare Tzedek Hospital said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Thursday for calm in Jerusalem, saying that "no side should take the law into its own hands."
The Al-Aqsa compound, or Temple Mount, which is a central cause of the latest violence, was shut down to all visitors as a security precaution. It was the first full closure of the site, venerated by both Jews and Muslims, in 14 years.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the closure as "tantamount to a declaration of war" and his Fatah party called for a "day of rage" on Friday. It was not clear if Al-Aqsa would be opened to Muslims on Friday.
