Hundreds of people protested at checkpoints into a refugee camp in Jerusalem and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces broke out across the West Bank on Wednesday, with a Palestinian killed near the southern city of Hebron.
The violence spread to the streets in East Jerusalem where Israeli police said they clashed with rioters and arrested several people who set fire to tires, threw rocks at passing cars and attacked officers.
The incidents continue months of escalating tensions that have deepened since Israeli forces began a crackdown in the occupied West Bank in late March following a series of attacks by Palestinians in Israel that killed 19 people.
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed this year, most since the army launched its operation, which has been marked by a near-daily series of raids and clashes with militant groups in West Bank cities like Nablus and Jenin.
Wednesday’s protests erupted as security forces continued a hunt for the killer of an 18-year-old soldier who was shot while on duty at a checkpoint into the Shuafat refugee camp, a heavily built-up area on the northern outskirts of Jerusalem that is home to an estimated 60,000 people.
The area has been blockaded for days as police have imposed strict vehicle checks and combed through streets and houses looking for the shooter.
Read the article by Sinan Abu Mayzer and Raneen Sawafta in Sight Magazine.