A Palestinian suspected of ramming his car into a group of Israeli policeman in occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday night has been arrested by Israeli police, a police spokesman said Sunday.The attack left four Israeli police officers injured, with three sustaining light injuries and one moderately hurt.
Israeli news source Ynet named the suspect as 31-year-old Fadi Saleh from Shufat refugee camp, although an Israeli police were unable to confirm the suspect’s identity.
A spokesman told Ma’an News Agency that search operations had continued through Saturday night, and that a Palestinian man was arrested Sunday morning, and was being questioned as the main suspect in the attack.
The alleged hit-and-run came after a day of clashes across occupied East Jerusalem that left dozens of Palestinians injured.
Clashes were concentrated in the neighborhoods of at-Tour (Mount of Olives) neighborhood and al-Isawiya and erupted after Israeli police shot dead a young Palestinian from at-Tour whom they allege ran towards them wielding a large knife.
At-Tour called for a state of mourning on Saturday following Abu Ghannam’s death, and local schools and institutions closed for the day.
A Palestinian Red Crescent official Dr. Amin Abu Ghazaleh said 26 Palestinians were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets during clashes in at-Tour and that dozens more suffered excessive tear gas inhalation.
He also said that Israeli forces had targeted Red Crescent ambulance crews, leaving two Palestinian medics injured.
Tensions have been running high in East Jerusalem ever since last summer when Jewish extremists kidnapped and murdered a 16-year-old Palestinian boy, Muhammad Abu Khdeir.
Saturday’s alleged hit-and-run is the latest in a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli forces and civilians in the months since then.
Less than a day after Abu Ghannam was shot dead in East Jerusalem, another Palestinian was killed on Saturday at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron when he stabbed an Israeli soldier.
In the six months to the end of February, the United Nations reported that 10 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks.
During the same period, 17 Palestinians across the West Bank and East Jerusalem were killed by Israeli forces and settlers, and hundreds more injured.
The number is higher in Gaza, where the death toll from last summer’s devastating Israeli offensive continued to rise months after the conflict ended as Palestinians succumbed to their wounds.
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