Iran Press/ Middle East: Israeli police attacked the neighborhood, dispersing journalists and Palestinians who were in the area to support families who have been under threat of forcible eviction from their homes.
Israeli security forces also raided houses in the neighborhood.
Four Palestinian minors, ranging in age between 12 and 14 years, sustained injuries after being pepper-sprayed in the face by an Israeli settler, according to local sources.
Tensions have escalated across the Palestinian territories since April over an Israeli court verdict to evict Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah in favor of Jewish settlers. The situation flared up after Israeli forces raided Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, and assaulted worshippers inside.
Dozens of families in Sheikh Jarrah have been facing the imminent risk of forced expulsion from their homes for the benefit of Israeli settlers.
The tensions spread to the Gaza Strip, with Israel launching airstrikes that killed at least 290 Palestinians, including women and children, and left behind a trail of destruction. Health centers and media offices as well as schools were among the structures targeted.
On May 21, an Egyptian-brokered truce ended Israel’s 12-day bombardment of Gaza.
Israeli settlers’ vandalism in the occupied West Bank is routine and is done with full backing by the Israeli authorities, said the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
Israel benefits from the repercussions, as settler violence has gradually dispossessed Palestinians of more and more areas in the West Bank, paving the way for a state takeover of land and resources, said B’Tselem.
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