Teenager in Jerusalem hit by Israeli police car for 'raising Palestine flag'

Israeli police in occupied east Jerusalem rammed a Palestinian teenager with their car on Sunday evening as he was riding his bicycle through the streets of the Silwan district south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Palestinian eyewitnesses and media sources reported that three Israeli policemen chased after 15-year-old Jawad Abbasi when they saw him riding his bicycle in the Ras al-Amoud area of Silwan with a Palestinian flag raised on it.

They then ran him over, injuring him in his legs.

Jawad was then detained by Israeli forces for a brief period of time before being taken to hospital for treatment, the sources reported.

Social media users uploaded video to Twitter showing armed Israeli police holding the Palestinian teenager by the back of his T-shirt while he sat injured on the ground, as onlookers shouted “They ran over the child because he raised a Palestinian flag!”

This Palestinian boy is being arrested by half a dozen Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem because he dared to flaunt the Palestinian flag on his bicycle in the Palestinian occupied city pic.twitter.com/YaaN7ptumK

— mhmd (@mohamedhemish) May 30, 2021

Israel has been carrying out a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation against Palestinians in Jerusalem, with the aim of changing the demographic balance in the city.

Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah district of east Jerusalem have been threatened with forced expulsion from their homes after Israeli settlers laid claim to their property and Israeli forces carried out a series of provocations against Muslim worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the fasting month of Ramadan.

Palestinians in Silwan have also been threatened with expulsion from their homes.

Israeli security forces attacked and injured hundreds of worshippers at the mosque on May 10, prompting the Palestinian faction Hamas to fire rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip in response.

Israel then launched a deadly 11-day assault on Gaza , killing 254 Palestinians including 66 children.

Twelve people in Israel, including a child, were killed by Hamas rocket fire.