Palestinians in Jerusalem go on strike after teen killed by Israeli security

Palestinians in Jerusalem have launched a commercial strike over the killing of a teenager in the early hours of Saturday.

Businesses were shuttered in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli police were deployed across the city in anticipation of potential unrest.

16-year-old Ali Abu Ghannam was shot and killed at an Israeli checkpoint on Saturday morning after allegedly running towards the checkpoint brandishing a knife.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that police fired warning shots into the air and then "fired precise shots neutralizing him [the suspect]" when he failed to pay attention to their warnings.

The teen's father Muhammed Abu Ghannam, told Middle East Eye, he hadn't even been aware of his son's location at the time.

"Yesterday at night, one of my son friends came to the house and informed me that my son was shot in Alzaytoon checkpoint in Jerusalem," he said. "I didn't believe it, and went to my son room to check if he is sleeping."

"Then I went by my self to the checkpoint and I saw an ambulance, and a lot of Israeli army forces. They didn't let me in, but I wanted to see my son. They showed me a picture of him and I knew it was him."

"After that they searched me and asked me to take off my clothes and investigated me for hours."

He also said that Israeli security forces had warned him to keep his son's funeral procession to a small number of mourners, otherwise they would not release the body.

"They later offered to let me take my son's body and to bury him with only with my family members - but I refused", he said.

Mohammed disputed the Israeli forces' account of the events.

"I don't believe my son went with a knife to the soldiers, my son didn't do any thing," he asserted. "Where is this knife? I asked them to show me the security video cameras that they have in the checkpoint but they refused."

There were also reports that Ghannam's residence in al-Tor in East Jerusalem had been raided by security forces.

Various belongings were confiscated, according to eyewitnesses quoted by Anadolu Agency.

In response to the killing, Hamas announced on their twitter feed that Palestinians had the “right to retaliate”:

Tensions have been high for many months in East Jerusalem, with repeated acts of sporadic violence breaking out between Palestinians, Israeli security forces and right-wing Jewish settlers.

Repeated incursions into the Harim al-Sharif (known to Jews as the Temple Mount) by Jewish activists have been a focal point for much of the unrest.