Israeli forces raid mourning tent of Palestinian killed for allegedly shooting fireworks

Israeli forces raid mourning tent of Palestinian killed for allegedly shooting fireworks
Tensions have soured in East Jerusalem after 20-year-old Mohammad Samir Obeid was killed on Thursday for allegedly attempting to shoot fireworks.
2 min read
30 June, 2019
Palestinians resist Israeli raids on a second day after Mohammad Samir Obeid was killed [Anadolu/Getty]
Clashes between Palestinian protestors and Israeli police took place late on Saturday and early on Sunday in East Jerusalem, the Times of Israel reported, amid tensions after police killed a Palestinian for firing fireworks.

Six people were arrested and two police injured in clashes that centered around the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Issawiya, Channel 12 news reported.

Israeli forces raided a mourning tent and confiscated posters of Mohammad Samir Obeid, who was killed on Thursday for allegedly shooting fireworks.

Tensions in the area have soured since Obeid's death. Protests against the incident were held on Friday, in which 80 demonstrators suffered light injuries.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that during unspecified "police operations" in the Issawiya neighbourhood Thursday a suspect fired fireworks at officers.

"He was shot, injured critically as a result of firing fireworks directly at officers putting them in a life-threating situation," Rosenfeld told AFP.

He said that fireworks, lashed together in bundles and fired from a tube, were often fired at Israeli security forces.

"Within a certain range, they're life-threatening," he said.

"A citizen was martyred after the occupation shot him in the Issawiya neighbourhood," the Palestinian health ministry wrote in Arabic.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said that Palestinians had clashed with the police who had entered Issawiya.

Four other Palestinians were injured, it said, adding that Obeid had served time in Israeli prison in the past.

Rights groups have long criticised Israeli police for using reckless and unlawful lethal force against Palestinians.

Palestinian have been demonstrating throughout the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip against the launch of the US administration's Middle East peace plan.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.

Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, while the Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Agencies contributed to this report.

Follow us on Twitter: @The_NewArab