Clashes have broken out as Israeli police evicted several Palestinians who had taken over a house in an Arab neighbourhood of annexed east Jerusalem which was recently bought by a Jewish group.
‘A group of Palestinians this morning entered an empty home which Jews had purchased in a-Tor,’ Jerusalem district police spokeswoman Sigal Toledo told AFP.
‘Police arrived to remove them after the Jewish owners filed a complaint,’ Toledo said Sunday.
Following the evacuation of the squatters, violent clashes erupted in the area between police and Palestinians, and police used stun grenades to break up the demonstration, Toledo said.
Four policemen were injured by stones hurled at them, she said.
An array of ultra-nationalist Jewish organisations have bought houses and land in areas across east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied and annexed in 1967, and where the Palestinians wish to establish a capital.
The Jewish settlements in the heart of the densely-populated Arab neighbourhood have been the cause of much friction in the past.
The Jewish group which owned the building was not available for comment.