Israeli forces assault, arrest Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem

Israeli occupation forces Tuesday attacked Palestinians gathered at East Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, one of the entrances to the Old City and the Haram Al-Sharif Compound, and arrested a number of them ahead of a march by Jewish extremists and settlers.

Eyewitnesses told Petra’s reporter in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah that police forces deployed in occupied East Jerusalem beat Palestinians with batons as they tried to clear them from Damascus Gate, a flashpoint of latest tensions.

Israel sent police and military reinforcements, and closed Palestinian-owned stores in the Old City of Jerusalem ahead of the so-called “flag march” by ultranationalist and extremist settlers.

Palestinian national and Islamic factions in the West Bank and Arabs in Israel proper called for standing against the provocative march in which thousands of right-wing Israelis and settlers were due to take part.

Source: Jordan News Agency