Clashes erupted between residents of Silwan district of Jerusalem and Israeli border police after an Israeli security guard killed a Palestinian on Wednesday, in an East Jerusalem district that sees frequent tensions over its Jewish settler enclave. The guard shot 32-year-old Samer Sarhan, while driving through Silwan before dawn, a police spokesman said, adding that he told investigators he had opened fire after his car was blocked and stoned by dozens of Palestinians. Local residents said the Israeli worked as a guard for the small Jewish settlement in Silwan, and that at least two other Palestinians were wounded in the shooting. Israeli police fired smoke grenades and tear gas to disperse clashes with stone-throwing Palestinians in Jerusalem's most hotly contested holy site. Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and regards all of the city as its capital, a status not recognised internationally. Many settlers claim a Jewish biblical birthright to the occupied territory. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they intend to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a demand at the heart of U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Israel which resumed this month.
