Hawzah News Agency –Despite mounting tensions and a seemingly imminent outbreak of violence, far-right Israeli MK Itamar Ben-Gvir set up an office today in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem.
Videos shared on the social media showed fierce clashes breaking out in the neighborhood following Ben-Gvir’s provocative move, and settlers were seen throwing chairs at native Palestinian citizens as Israeli Police stood by to protect them.
Ben-Gvir’s makeshift office was set up on the land of the Palestinian family of Salem which is facing an imminent risk of Israeli expulsion in favor of far-right Israeli organizations.
Last night, scores of Israeli settlers backed by police stormed the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied Jerusalem, where they attacked and terrified native Palestinian families and attempted to evict some of them from their homes.
Witnesses said that groups of Israeli settlers backed by Israeli Police stormed the neighborhood in middle of the night, pelted stones at homes and smashed some parked vehicles belonging to local Palestinian citizens.
The settlers also attempted to attack the Salem family home in the neighborhood to evict them from their home, hours after the family received an Israeli court ruling of dispossession that orders the family out of their home to hand it over to far-right Jewish organizations.
Israeli Police fired rubber-coated rounds, teargas canisters and stun grenades at local Palestinian citizens who tried to fend off the settlers’ attack, causing cases of suffocation from gas inhalation.
Fatma Salem, a member of the family, said their home was attacked by settlers and that the family were afraid of an arson attack by settlers, calling on all those who can reach the neighborhood to do so immediately to stand beside them.
The neighborhood is already an explosive issue as far-right Jewish organizations attempt to expel Palestinians there from their homes, an issue that led to a round of violence last year fueled by Israel’s attempts to expel native families from their homes by force.