Israel gripped by mass protests after police killing of Ethiopian teenager

Thousands protested across Israel on Tuesday, as demonstrators blocked major highways around the country halting traffic for hours.

They also attacked police and vandalised vehicles in response to what they see as continued police brutality.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said more than 110 police officers were wounded, including from stones and bottles hurled at them.

The protesters burned tires and set a vehicle on fire, clashing with police and assaulting those who tried to break through their makeshift roadblocks. Overnight, the protesters continued rioting, flipping over a police cruiser. Rosenfeld said more than 130 suspects have been arrested.

The protests erupted after Solomon Teka, 18, was fatally shot in a Haifa suburb on Sunday and escalated after his funeral on Tuesday. The officer in question says he was at a public playground with his young children and felt their lives were in danger from a group of rioting teenagers.

The Ethiopian community in Israel has long complained of racism, lack of opportunity and routine police harassment

He says he opened fire toward the ground and had no intention of killing anyone. He is being investigated by internal affairs and remains under protective custody.

The protesters view the killing as part of a pattern of systematic discrimination by police, who they accuse of using excessive force.

Israeli police say they will permit peaceful protests, including a limited blocking of roads, but will not accept renewed violence.

The protesters view the killing as part of a pattern of systematic discrimination by police. [Getty]

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement acknowleding that "there are problems that need to be solved", but he warned demonstrators that the authorities "will not tolerate the blocking of roads".

"I ask you: Let us solve the problems together while upholding the law," he said.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin also called for calm, warning against what he called "a civil war."

"We need to stop and think how we move forward," he said. "We need to complete the investigation of Solomon's death and prevent the next death, the next harming, the next humiliation. We are all committed to this."

Ethiopian Jews, who trace their lineage to the ancient Israelite tribe of Dan, began arriving in large numbers in the 1980s, when Israel secretly airlifted them to the Holy Land to save them from war and famine in the Horn of Africa.

The new arrivals struggled as they made the transition from a rural, developing African country into an increasingly high-tech Israel.

Over time, many have integrated more into Israeli society, serving in the military and police and making inroads in politics, sports and entertainment. Israel has touted their success as proof of the country's acceptance and diversity.

But many in the community complain of racism, lack of opportunity and routine police harassment. Today, they number around 150,000 out of Israel's 9 million citizens.

The Ethiopians immigrants have long alleged discrimination. In the late 1990s, it was discovered that Israel's health services were throwing out Ethiopian Israeli blood donations over fears of diseases contracted in Africa.

Some landlords have also refused them as tenants, and accusations have been raised that Israel has deliberately tried to curb their birth rates.

But frustrations only boiled into a public outcry with a younger generation far more willing to take on the establishment. Mass protests first erupted in 2015 after a police officer was filmed beating a uniformed Ethiopian Israeli soldier, and there have been sporadic demonstrations since.