Muawiyah Abu Jamal, a slight 42-year-old construction worker, recalls vividly the night that Israeli security forces came to his East Jerusalem neighborhood to demolish the nearby home of his younger brother, Ghassan Abu Jamal.

Young Palestinians say their leaders have failed to protect them. Israeli settlers say they will not be frightened away by ‘jihad’. And across the city, the cycle of violence continues.

The IDF Spokesperson and Israeli media outlets said that a young Palestinian man from the village of Budrus was shot while trying to snatch a soldier’s weapon. An eye witness, photographs and the autopsy tell a different story — that he was shot in the back, from some distance.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, working in coordination with the Jerusalem Municipality, announced on Tuesday the approval of 500 housing units in the contested Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, located beyond the 1949 Armistice (Green) Line.

Israel’s security cabinet on Monday outlawed the Islamic Movement’s northern branch in Israel in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was a bid to end “dangerous incitement.”

A senior Palestinian official has given his blessing to the current wave of protest activities against the Israeli army and settlers while clearly warning about the uprising taking a military turn.

A senior Palestinian official on Monday said the Palestinian Authority has reached an agreement with Egypt to reopen the Gaza Strip’s main border crossing in an arrangement meant to bypass the territory’s Hamas rulers.