Night clashes erupt in Jerusalem Shuf’at camp, dozens wounded

 Dozens of Palestinians sustained breathing difficulties after inhaling tear gas during clashes that erupted Friday night between Palestinian youths and Israeli occupation forces in the vicinity of a military checkpoint near the Shu’fat refugee camp in central Jerusalem.

Locals reported that violent clashes broke out when the youths hurled stones and empty bottles at the IOF soldiers stationed at a provocative checkpoint located at the camp’s entrance.

Sources added that soldiers proceeded to close off and comb the area and block traffic at the point for hours without report of arrest. Israeli special military units were intensively deployed in the camp’s alleys throughout the night to provoke residents.

On his part, Palestinian Legislative Council Secretary Mahmoud Al Ramahi said the direct reason for attacks and violations by the IOF troops and settlers against Palestinians and their property in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip are the futile and unsolicited negotiations with Israel, and the positions and irresponsibility on the part of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and its spokesmen.

“Israel, which judaizes Jerusalem and the holy sites and excavates the land in the West Bank and continues its unjust blockade on the Gaza Strip, has taken the decision to return to negotiations as a legal cover, in addition to its security coordination with the PA’s security establishment in the West Bank, and its targeting of the resistance [movement] and its men, whether through arrests, torture, or physical liquidation,” Ramahi said.

On another note, Ramahi condemned a crackdown by the Israeli prisons authority in the Nafha prison Saturday morning, assuring that Hamas representatives will stand by the side of Palestinian POWs and their just cause.