Scuffles as mosque gate attacked in Jerusalem

Palestinian residents say that clashes in Silwan neighbourhood erupted after the settlers tried to break into a mosque courtyard.

But Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld asserted that riots broke out due to a disagreement over a pathway claimed by both Israeli colonists and Palestinian families.

Mr Rosenfeld added that an Israeli court ruled in 2000 that the pathway belongs to a settler family.

About 50,000 Palestinians and 70 Israeli settler families live in Silwan, where tensions have been pushed to boiling point by Israeli plans to demolish Palestinian homes.

Tel Aviv's ongoing drive to shift the demographics of the Arab quarter is expected to be a major point of contention in Israeli-Palestinian talks which are due to resume next week.

The democratically elected Hamas administration in Gaza and a coalition of left-wing groups and factions have condemned the Palestinian Authority for agreeing to return to the direct talks, despite Tel Aviv's refusal to seriously rein in settlers.

Israel seized and illegally annexed east Jerusalem in 1967.

On Thursday Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh insisted that "no negotiator who would give up Jerusalem has a national mandate."

Speaking at a Ramadan fast-breaking meal in Khan Younis attended by families of Palestinians who are jailed in Israel, Mr Haniyeh said that the "prisoners, the injured and the families of martyrs will not authorise anyone who wants to give up Palestine and Jerusalem after they have sacrificed for years and struggled to keep it."