The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, was volatile in Jerusalem’s eastern neighborhoods, where clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. In the Silwan neighborhood, located next to the old city of Jerusalem, clashes lasted for several hours after masked men pelted Israeli Border Police troops with firebombs and stones. A Jerusalem District Police spokesperson said police forces opened fire after the violent rioting deteriorated when Palestinian assailants hurled fire bombs at the troops and placed their lives in ‘imminent danger’.
One Palestinian man, aged 20, was shot and killed during the incident. Police said the man who was released just several months before from an Israeli prison where he served an 18-month sentence, was immediately buried by his family, fearing his body would be seized by the security forces and not returned.
During the course of the day, five residents of Silwan were arrested for taking part in the clashes. In another incident, a firebomb was thrown at an IDF base on Mount Scopus, located near to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. No one was injured and no damage was caused.
In the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, stones were thrown at a police cruiser. No one was injured in this incident either. Clashes were also reported in the West Bank. An IDF soldier sustained light injuries to his eye from a stone thrown by a Palestinian man near the security fence at the Jewish settlement of Beit El. The soldier was taken to a medical center in Jerusalem for further treatment while the Palestinian assailant managed to escape the scene.
The IDF said it lifted the closure last night that was imposed on the West Bank and the crossings to the Gaza Strip prior to Yom Kippur.