JERUSALEM: Two stone-throwing Palestinian boys were on Friday run over and injured by a car driven by a Jewish settler leader in an east Jerusalem flashpoint, police and witnesses said.
The incident occurred after Friday prayers in the run-down neighborhood of Silwan just south of Jerusalem’s Old City, raising tensions in the area that has seen regular clashes between hardline Jewish settlers and local residents.
The two masked boys, Imran Mansur, 11, and Iyad Gheit, 10, were standing in the road among a group throwing stones when a car drove round the corner and ploughed into them, witnesses and an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
Mansur was thrown into the air and bounced off the car’s windscreen before crashing to the ground. The car stopped briefly before driving off.
He suffered a broken leg, while the other boy was taken to hospital to have glass removed from his arm. The incident was recorded by photographers and journalists who were there in case of unrest that often follows Friday prayers.
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby identified the driver as David Beeri, the local leader of Elad, a hardline settler group that pushes increased Jewish settlement in the Old City and occupied east Jerusalem.
"We have opened an investigation into the driver of the vehicle and we will check all the footage," Ben Ruby said.
