J'lem Mayor Nir Barkat Condemns Rioting

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called on security forces to take a strong stance against rioting emanating from predominantly Arab neighborhoods in the city.

The weekend riots began in the Wadi Joz neighborhood after 16-year-old Mohammed Sunokrot, injured during a riot earlier in the week, died of his wounds.

The youth's father told the Palestinian Authority's Maan news agency his son was shot in the head while talking on the phone in an "unprovoked attack."

Israel Police say he was shot in the leg as he threw rocks at police and fell and hit his head as he was running away. Police told Israeli media they do not use rubber bullets.

Sunokrot was originally taken to a Palestinian hospital and then transferred to Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem, where he succumbed to his injuries.

An autopsy will be performed Monday at the Abu Kabir forensic center, with the director of the Palestinian Institute for Forensic Science in attendance.

Meanwhile, Arab rioters threw rocks, Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs at civilian and police vehicles and in one instance, attacked a gas station in a Jewish neighborhood in French Hill, smashing the windows and looting the station's convenience store and spraying the street with oil before trying to set the station on fire. 

Jerusalem councilman Arieh King, who visited the station, said, "Muslim terror is raising its head in Jerusalem."

"A great disaster was averted tonight," King said, adding that he was "shocked by the destruction and by the danger that hovers above the heads of tens of thousands of Jerusalem residents."