The Wadi Hilwa Information Center in Bir Ayyoub area, in Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem, reported on Wednesday at night that a Palestinian youth was shot in the face by a rubber-coated bullet fired by Israeli soldiers during clashes that took place in Silwan.The Center said that the twenty-year-old resident suffered severe wounds as he was shot directly in the face, including a serious wound to his lips leading to massive bleeding. The wounded youth was moved to the Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem.
The clashes spread to other parts of East Jerusalem while clashes also took place in the nearby Al Thoury neighborhood as the army violently attacked the protestors.
Furthermore, soldiers fired teargas canisters and rubber-coated bullets at the protest tent in Silwan as dozens of Palestinians, Israeli and international activists were holding an education seminar.
The soldiers tried to kidnap several children in Bir Ayyoub and Al Bustan, but the protesting youth prevented them from conducting the illegal arrests.
Soldiers and policemen managed to reach the protest tent, that was installed to protest the ongoing Israeli violations, takeover of Palestinian homes by extremist settlers and home demolition. The police forced Palestinian, Israeli and International peace activists to evacuate.
The tent in Al Bustan became a symbol for nonviolent resistance in Jerusalem while the army and police are ongoing with their attacks against the residents and their property.
It also became of target of constant attacks as army wants to remove it, but failed to do so due to the persistence of the local residents and peace activists.
Israel is trying to force the residents out of their homes in order to replace them with fundamentalist Israeli settlers in Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah and several Arab neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem.
On April 17, the Israeli Central Court in Jerusalem held a hearing into the case of a young Palestinian man and three children who were kidnapped by the army after the soldiers claimed the four hurled empty bottles at them.
The four were identified as Hani Sheiki, 28, Amir Qaraeen, 15, Luay Rweidy, 14, and his brother, Suhaib Rweidi, 17.
The arrests are part of a larger illegal arrest campaign carried out by the police against local residents, society figures and leaders of the nonviolent movement.
