Confrontations broke out, on Tuesday morning, between Israeli forces and hundreds of Palestinian school children in the al-Isawiya neighborhood, in East Jerusalem, local sources told Ma’an News. According to an Israeli police spokesman, local youth hurled stones at Jerusalem municipality officials, while they were carrying out car safety checks, and the police responded by dispersing the young men.
Tensions allegedly erupted after the Israeli military erected road-blocks at the eastern entrance of the neighborhood, obstructing access to school classrooms. Police and border guards chased school pupils when they attempted to cross the road-blocks, locals said.
The clash comes after three days of car safety checks in al-Isawiya, perceived by the residents as provocative, which have consisted in stopping cars at road blocks, doing maintenance checks, and causing long delays.
Most cars were deemed unfit for the road. Residents brought the use of spot checks into question, pointing out that cars passed the annual mandatory maintenance tests for licenses to drive in Israel.
Tensions were high in the city of Jerusalem, with residents of Silwan who witnessed undercover police officers detaining five young men and beating four others, during a raid on grocery store.
The men detained were from the Zaytoun, Da’na, al-Muhtasib and ar-Razim families.
