Issawiyeh: A Jerusalem neighborhood in distress with dozens wounded and detained

Jerusalem (QNN) – For two weeks now, Israeli security forces have been waging a mini-war against Issawiyeh neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, according to local residents, that culminated in the shooting death of a young resident, injury of more than 80 people in just two days of clashes and the detention last night and today of at least 19 people.

Residents said most of those detained were from the extended family of 21-year-old Mohammad Obeid, who was shot and killed by the Israeli forces on Thursday, and included couples and children.

Residents have recently been protesting unusually harsh Israeli measures in their neighborhood that included daily harassment and raids at homes under various pretexts, including collecting taxes.

During one of these protests two days ago, the security forces shot and killed Obeid with a bullet to the heart. The security forces prevented the residents from rushing Obeid to a nearby hospital and instead used force to seize him while wounded and took him to the hospital with critical wounds where he was shortly after pronounced dead.

Witnesses said the shooting was in cold blood and totally unjustified since there were no confrontations at that moment other than the peaceful protest at one end of the neighborhood.

Obeid was a former prisoner who served time in Israeli prisons for resisting the occupation and was recently released, which prompted his family and residents to charge that his killing was intentional and a vengeful act demanding as a result an autopsy to be carried on the deceased.

In the meanwhile, the protests continued and intensified in the neighborhood since the killing and the police and security forces crackdown on the protests that led to more than 80 injuries in only two days and over 19 detentions.

The Red Crescent said Israeli police has interrupted its operation in the neighborhood and providing medical attention to the wounded, often preventing ambulances from reaching the wounded.

It said its crews treated 50 cases only yesterday with seven suffocation cases from teargas inhalation and were taken to hospital, six with broken bones, and 37 from rubber-coated metal bullets.

Meanwhile, Israel is still holding Obeid’s corpse and it is not clear when it intends to turn it over to the family for proper burial.