Israel-Palestine Crisis: Scuffle between protestors and Israeli police at Sheikh Jarrah

News Desk: Israeli police on horseback scattered protesters in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah where demonstrators poured in to support Palestinians facing eviction by Jewish settlers.

The scuffles on Friday came alongside protests elsewhere in the occupied West Bank.

In Jerusalem, Palestinian men laid rugs on the asphalt of a street and carried out prayers. Later, activists who ended up numbering in the hundreds joined them to protest the looming evictions.

Reporters observed Israeli border police charging the protesters on horseback after the activists refused to clear a road.

Police described the incident as a “riot” and said that “demonstrators did not listen to instructions of police”.

A photographer observed two people being detained. However, police said no arrests were reported.

Sheikh Jarrah has emerged as a symbol of Palestinian resistance against Israeli control of East Jerusalem.

Palestinians also confronted Israeli forces in Hebron – in the southern West Bank – and in the northern West Bank’s Beita.

In Beita, residents opposed to an Israeli outpost erected on village land used slingshots to hurl rocks at Israeli forces who responded with what the army called “riot dispersal means”.

A photographer was wounded by a rubber coated bullet fired by Israeli forces.