An Israeli family of five escaped an attempted lynching in east Jerusalem while driving through one of the neighborhoods late on Wednesday, the police said.
The parents with their three children, including two babies, were attacked in the Beit Hanina neighborhood by stones and objects thrown at them by rioters after encountering an improvised roadblock. They were rescued unharmed, the police said.
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Car belonging to Israeli family after being trapped and attacked in east Jerusalem
(Photo: Mynet Jerusalem)
Riots broke out in a number of neighborhoods in the eastern part of the capital, where two police officers suffered mild injuries.
The clashes erupted in protest over security forces operating in the area as part of the manhunt for the assailant who shot and killed a Border Police officer at the Shuafat checkpoint earlier in the week.
Residents of neighborhoods bordering Palestinian sectors of the city also reported shots fired at their homes.
Palestinians open fire and throw stones towards Israeli forces
Earlier, IDF troops killed a Palestinian teenager who was throwing stones during clashes that erupted at a refugee camp in the West Bank, marking the latest deadly incident as violence surges.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the Palestinian as 18-year-old Osama Adawi, who was struck in the abdomen by a bullet.
The military said troops opened fire at a group of Palestinians, among them Adawi, who were hurling rocks at Israeli motorists on Route 60, the territory's main north-south artery.
Tensions have surged across the West Bank and east Jerusalem as Israeli forces continue to search for Palestinian gunmen who carried out two recent shooting attacks against soldiers, while thousands of Jewish worshippers flocked to Jerusalem to mark the weeklong holiday of Sukkot, putting the city on edge.
As night fell Wednesday, clashes erupted at the Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, with Palestinians violently protesting the Israeli police presence.
Clashes in the Shuafat refugee camp
(Al Qastal)
Police have been combing Shuafat, a camp for Palestinian refugees on the outskirts of Jerusalem, for a suspect in a deadly shooting attack at a checkpoint on Saturday that killed Noa Lazar. For days, officers have set up checkpoints and deployed groups of armed officers to question residents. The checkpoints have choked off entry and exit points out of the area, disturbing daily life for residents.
In east Jerusalem, Palestinian shops and businesses declared a general strike and shut down to protest Israeli police raids. Calls were made over mosques' loud speakers to continue the strike on Thursday.
"Showing solidarity with Shuafat means more than a day's income," said Anan Sabah, a butcher in the Old City. "The camp has been closed and surrounded for days. We are closed to say that's collective punishment."
After a spate of attacks against Israelis earlier this year, nightly raids conducted by the Israeli military in the West Bank have been taking place. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the violence, making this year the deadliest since 2015. Most of those killed have been militants, according to Israel, but some local youth protesting the raids as well as civilians have also been killed in the violence.
The raids have sparked a series of shooting attacks in recent weeks against Israelis in the West Bank, including one near the Palestinian city of Nablus on Tuesday that killed an Israeli soldier.
The Israeli military said it had closed some roads leading in and out of the city and set up roadblocks in its search for the gunmen.