Clashes at Jerusalem refugee camp as EU urges progress

Stone-throwing Palestinians battled Israeli police in a refugee camp in east Jerusalem today as the top EU diplomat warned of a new wave of violence if peace efforts remain deadlocked.
Clashes shook the Shuafat camp for a third straight day with security forces firing tear gas at crowds of youths who set light to tyres and rubbish bins.
The camp descended into chaos on Wednesday after one of its residents deliberately ran down two groups of pedestrians in Jerusalem, killing a border policeman and injuring another nine people before being shot dead.
A young Israeli also died today of injuries sustained in the attack -- the second of its kind in a fortnight.

Police barred men of 35 and under from attending the main weekly Muslim prayers at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City, for fear of a repetition of heavy clashes there earlier this week that prompted Jordan to recall its ambassador.
Police said that in the event the Old City was calm and 15,000 worshippers prayed at Al-Aqsa without incident, with more than 1,300 police deployed to maintain order.

Annexed east Jerusalem has been engulfed by violence over the past four months, with clashes occurring on an almost daily basis in several flashpoint Palestinian neighbourhoods.
Community officials say the wave of unrest is fuelled by a sense of hopelessness resulting from Israel's policies in east Jerusalem, which have left many youths with a sense they have nothing to lose.

The anger has been further fuelled by Israel's ongoing settlement activities in the eastern sector of the city as well as efforts by far-right Jewish fringe groups to secure prayer rights at the Al-Aqsa compound, which is holy to Jews as well as Muslims.