Six Israeli police officers injured when a Palestinian hits a roadblock in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian driver who crashed his car into a police roadblock and injured six officers at a flash point in Jerusalem, police said.
The incident on Sunday occurred in Sheikh Jarrah in Israel-occupied East Jerusalem. This is the focus of a lawsuit in which several Palestinian families were forcibly evicted from homes claimed by Jewish settlers.
The video, obtained from Reuters news agency, showed a car slamming into the roadblock at high speed in what police said was a deliberate attack. Police said officers opened fire and killed the driver, whose name was not immediately released.
Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the ruling Hamas group in the Gaza Strip, praised what he described as a “heroic and daring operation” in Sheikh Jarrah.
Hostilities had flared after Israeli police stormed the grounds of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem last week and fired rubber-coated steel balls and tear gas to disperse a sit-in staged in support of Sheikh Jarrah residents.
Hamas launched rockets on Israel on Monday shortly after an ultimatum for Israeli security forces to leave Al-Aqsa expired, resulting in an Israeli operation that has so far killed at least 192 people, including 58 children and 34 women.
Israel has reported 10 deaths, including two children.
The Jerusalem District Court has ruled that at least six families must leave their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, despite having lived there for generations.
The same court ruled that seven more families should leave their homes by August 1st. A total of 58 people, including 17 children, are said to be forcibly evicted to make way for Jewish settlers.
The Israeli Supreme Court last Monday postponed an important hearing on the forced evictions of Sheikh Jarrah due to mounting tensions in Jerusalem.
In Sheikh Jarrah, after dark on Sunday, police brought a mobile crane to secure concrete barriers and blocked the entrance to the potential eviction site and an adjoining tomb believed to be the burial site of Simon the Righteous, an ancient Jewish high priest.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed it in a move that has not received international recognition.
East Jerusalem is one of the areas where Palestinians are looking for a future state. Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital – a status that is not recognized abroad.
