JERUSALEM: Israeli police said on Thursday that they had arrested nine Palestinians during clashes in East Jerusalem, with tensions surging in the city and across the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians launched a rare general strike on Wednesday in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, including closing shops, in response to a days-long operation by Israeli security forces in the Shuafat Palestinian refugee camp.
Israel is searching the camp for the suspected killer of 18-year-old Israeli soldier Noa Lazar.
With the manhunt ongoing and clashes persisting, Israeli police said they had arrested Palestinians who were “throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and attacking officers.”
Munib Al-Qutob, an emergency worker, said that there had been “lots of injuries from rubber bullets and tear gas inhalation.”
A masked Palestinian in Shuafat, who asked that his name be withheld, said that Israeli forces were “full of anger because they can’t capture him,” referring to the 22-year-old Palestinian suspect.
Police said the Issawiya and Silwan neighborhoods of East Jerusalem also saw clashes, with two officers slightly injured.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem following the 1967 Six Day War, a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Clashes between security forces and Palestinians in the area are common.
But with violence rising, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid was scheduled to hold an East Jerusalem assessment with top security chiefs, his office said.
Bloodshed is also spiraling in the West Bank, where Israeli forces are conducting near daily raids pursuing suspects they accuse of involvement in deadly attacks on Israelis.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, including fighters and civilians, in an escalation that began in March.