(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Israeli police clashed with Palestinians across east Jerusalem yesterday ahead of a potentially explosive funeral that was delayed for a day and tight security conditions imposed.
Relatives of Abdelrahman Shaludi, the Palestinian driver who ploughed into a Jerusalem crowd on Wednesday, killing an Israeli baby, were told to be ready to bury him tonight, their lawyer said.
Police branded as a "terror attack" the incident on Wednesday in which Shaludi, 21, from east Jerusalem's flashpoint Silwan neighbourhood drove at high speed into a crowd of Israelis.
Three-month-old Haya Zissel Braun was killed and six others injured. Shaludi was shot dead by police as he fled on foot.
He was first to have been buried on Friday evening but Israeli media said security authorities wanted to impose draconian security conditions, fearing violence.
Tensions have been running high since the incident with nightly clashes across Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. As evening fell, violence again erupted.
Silwan residents stoned a sanitation vehicle sent to clean up debris from Friday's stone-throwing, and police responded with "non-lethal means of dispersal," spokeswoman Luba Samri said, using a term generally alluding to tear gas or stun grenades.
In Al-Tur on the Mount of Olives, masked Palestinians blocked the road with garbage bins, and threw stones and petrol bombs, police said. Near the Shuafat refugee camp stones were throne at the Jerusalem light railway, a frequent target. Police said a carriage window was damaged but no one hurt.
With tensions further stoked after the army shot dead a West Bank teenager on Friday, there were also reports of stoning of Israeli vehicles on roads around Ramallah.
Relatives of the dead 14-year-old, Orwa Hammad, said his funeral would take place today, to allow his father time to travel from the United States where he is a resident citizen. They said the teenager was also a US national, as was the baby girl killed on Wednesday.
The army said Hammad had been about to hurl a petrol bomb at Israeli motorists near Ramallah when he was shot by troops on a stakeout in the village of Silwad to protect a road frequently used by Jewish settlers.
"The forces fired immediately to neutralise the danger... and confirmed a hit," a spokeswoman said. Palestinian officials said Hammad was shot during a stone-throwing protest against troops, a regular occurrence in Silwad, which lies close to the Jewish settlement of Ofra.
Washington expressed its "deepest condolences to the family of a US citizen minor who was killed by the Israeli Defence Forces". State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called for "a speedy and transparent investigation" into the teenager's death.
"We continue to urge all parties to help restore calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of the tragic recent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank," she added.
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