IOF, settlers attack Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah

Days of Palestine – Jerusalem – Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces (IOF), attacked on Saturday Palestinian civilians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the occupied Jerusalem.

Local sources said that dozens of hardline settlers, under the protection of IOF, tried to attack Salem’s Family, noting that IOF assaulted them by spraying hot pepper gas on their faces, injuring a number of them.

Salem’s Family sent a distress call to the whole world and everyone who could reach the neighborhood, to provide them with protection.

“We are afraid that we will be burned inside our homes,” Fatima Salem said.

Sources stated that Salem’s family had received a final decision from IOF to forcibly displace them from their home.

Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians by throwing stones at them, their vehicles, and homes in the neighborhood.

They added that IOF protected the settlers and fired tear gas canisters at the Palestinians who went out to confront the settlers’ attacks against them.

Jerusalemite sources said that settlers also smashed the windows of a number of vehicles belonging to Palestinians in the neighborhood, in front of the IOF.

They added that clashes erupted between the citizens and the occupation forces, as the occupation soldiers fired rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas, and sound bombs at the citizens and their homes.

Meanwhile, the extremist Knesset member Itamar Ben Gvir announced his intention to move his office to Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood under the pretext of “providing protection for settlers.”

Dozens of families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood are still facing the threat of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement from their homes in favor of settlement projects, as settlers continue their attacks on the neighborhood, while the occupation authorities tighten their arbitrary measures against its residents in an attempt to displace them.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the entire city in 1980 – a move that has never been recognized by the international community.

(Source / 13.02.2022)