JERUSALEM
Violent clashes erupted on Wednesday in an East Jerusalem neighborhood between scores of Palestinian youths, on one hand, and Israeli policemen and army troops, on the other, eyewitnesses said.
They added that the clashes had broken out in the East Jerusalem Silwan neighborhood soon after Israeli policemen and army troops raided the homes of the relatives of a Palestinian driver accused of running over and killing an Israeli baby and injuring eight people.
"A large number of Israeli troops and policemen had arrived in the neighborhood and searched the homes of the relatives of Abdel-Rahman al-Shelodi, who is accused in the running over event," one eyewitness told Anadolu Agency.
He added that the home search provoked the Palestinian youths who clashed with the Israeli troops who responded by firing teargas.
Some Palestinians, the eyewitness said, experienced temporary asphyxiation as a result.
Israeli police, meanwhile, declared maximum alert in Jerusalem, sending reinforcements to different areas, according to Israel's Channel 10.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli baby died of injuries she sustained when a Palestinian driver ran over passengers disembarking from a light rail train in Jerusalem, Israeli medical sources said.
An Israeli spokesperson said the attacker was a resident of East Jerusalem.
Attacker dies at Israeli hospital
The Palestinian driver who ran over several Israelis in Jerusalem has died in hospital, Israeli medical sources said Wednesday.
The man, Abdel-Rahman al-Shelodi, was shot by Israeli police after hitting passengers disembarking from a light rail train in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
He later succumbed to his wounds at the hospital, a medical source was quoted as saying by the Hebrew-language Israel Hayoum newspaper.
A 3-month baby was killed and eight people were injured in the attack.
Following the attack, Israeli police stormed al-Shelodi's home in East Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood.
The tram line, which runs through East Jerusalem, links West Jerusalem to the Jewish-only Pitgadzev settlement.
Security was stepped up on the light rail line this summer after a 16-year-old Palestinian boy was kidnapped and killed by Jewish settlers near East Jerusalem's Shufat tram station.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
By Alaa Rimawi
www.aa.com.tr/en
