Riots broke out Thursday in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan and Abu Tor, following the death Wednesday of a local youth by police fire.
A local police commander said the youth was shot after masked men approached a border police unit and threatened the lives of the officers.
It was one of the rare cases in which Jerusalem police used live ammunition to deal with Arab unrest.
In the riots that followed, three local youths were wounded by rubber bullets. An Israeli ambulance that rushed to the scene was attacked with stones, which shattered its windows. The ambulance crew was rescued by border police units.
The riots may have been fueled by anger over the American suspension of talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
But the West Bank and Gaza Strip were relatively calm Thursday, as Palestinians waited for the PLO’s official reaction.
By Thursday night, the PLO executive committee was still in session in Baghdad, weighing its response to the U.S. move.
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