Jerusalem Clashes after Teen’s Funeral

Israeli forces attacked the funeral procession of slain Jerusalem teenager Abd al-Majid Sinokrot after mourners marched from his hometown of Wadi Joz to the al-Aqsa mosque on Monday.

Mourners raised Palestinian flags and after they left the mosque, Israeli forces fired stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber-coated steel bullets toward them near al-Sahira gate.

Clashes also broke out along Salah al-Din street in Jerusalem.

There were no immediate reports of injury.

The clashes shut down traffic throughout much of occupied East Jerusalem.

Jerusalem has been rocked by protests for two days after news broke that the teenager died from injuries sustained when he was shot last week by Israeli border police.

On Sunday, police said Palestinians threw stones and firecrackers at officers in Wadi Joz and the Issawiya and al-Tur districts of East Jerusalem and stoned civilian traffic.

They also threw petrol bombs at a petrol station on the edge of the East Jerusalem Israeli settlement of French Hill, setting a pump on fire.

Police said they responded to the unrest with unspecified “riot dispersal” weapons.

No serious injuries were reported on either side.

Muhammad Abd al-Majid Sunuqrut was shot last Monday by Israeli forces as he was talking on the phone in Wadi al-Joz in what his father at the time told Ma’an was an “unprovoked attack.”

Police said Sunuqrut was shot in the leg with a sponge grenade — intended to be a non-lethal form of crowd control — while rioting, but his family said he was shot in the head on his way to the mosque.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the border police had identified Sunuqrut as being “involved in rioting” and he was “shot in the leg” with the projectile, which has a foam-rubber nose atop a high-density plastic body and is fired from a grenade launcher.

Despite being hit, Sunuqrut attempted to flee but he “fell and then was transferred to Maqased hospital,” Rosenfeld said.

Rosenfeld said the teen must have hit his head when he fell. He said the justice ministry’s internal affairs unit was looking into the incident, in what he described as “standard procedure” for such cases.

After initial treatment in Maqased hospital in East Jerusalem, he was transferred to Hadassah Ein Kerem in west Jerusalem where he was pronounced dead on Sunday.

A hospital spokeswoman said his body was being transferred to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for an autopsy.

Over 770 Palestinians have been detained in East Jerusalem following widespread demonstrations in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shufat after the murder of teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir on July 2.

(Ma’an – www.maannews)

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