Thousands of Palestinians rallied on Friday in search for an eight-year-old child who went missing from east Jerusalem’s Arab town of Beit Hanina amid fears that he might have been kidnaped by extremist Jewish settlers.
The missing child Qais Abu Ramila was last seen on Friday afternoon and later reported missing by his family. He was last seen entering a car according to the Israeli occupation police.
His parents said they believed he was kidnapped.
Later the situation escalated into violent clashes after angry residents who participated in the search efforts marched towards the illegal settlement of Neve Yaakov. Several young men suffered injuries during the events.
The Red Crescent said that its ambulance crews provided medical assistance for 19 citizens during confrontations with police forces in the vicinity of Beit Hanina.
Local sources accused the Israeli police of hiding information about the disappearance of the child saying they refused to show the Palestinian side footage they had obtained from security camera recordings in the area.
Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi took part in the search efforts and kept in touch with the police to ensure they were doing their job in search for the kid.
In July 2014 a Palestinian teenager named Mohamed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and his body was discovered in the Jerusalem Forest. He was tortured and burned alive by Jewish settlers. 29- year-old Youssef Ben-David and two other settlers who were minors at the time were found guilty of the crime and later jailed for different terms.
