Israeli far-right rallies in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood after woman stabbed

A girl, 14, was arrested at a nearby school over the attack

Israeli far-right demonstrators gather on December 8 after a stabbing attack in Sheikh Jarrah, in occupied East Jerusalem. AFP

Israeli police sealed off Sheikh Jarrah on Wednesday to allow a far-right rally through the East Jerusalem neighbourhood, hours after a woman was stabbed in the area.

Police cordoned off streets and stationed heavily armed officers throughout Sheikh Jarrah, marking the heaviest presence of security forces in the neighbourhood for months.

A few dozen Israelis, mostly boys and young men, waved flags and chanted nationalist slogans as they marched through the streets of occupied East Jerusalem.

The group stopped outside a mosque and at the entrance to a street where Palestinian families are facing eviction by Israeli settlers, before proceeding to a Jewish tomb.

Police barricaded both entrances of the street, while officers escorted the demonstrators through the neighbourhood.

The far-right protest was a response to the stabbing earlier on Wednesday of an Israeli woman, 26, in Sheikh Jarrah. Police arrested a Palestinian girl, 14, accused of carrying out the attack.

The woman was slightly wounded in the back, a spokeswoman at Hadassah Hospital, where the victim was being treated, told The National.

Palestinian media on Wednesday reported that the girl detained by police was a member of one of the families under threat of eviction.

Rallies in support of the residents grew in April and May, coinciding with Palestinian protests around Jerusalem's Old City.

More than a thousand Palestinians and dozens of Israeli police officers were wounded in Jerusalem during the weeks preceding the Gaza war, doctors said.

Wednesday's stabbing took place near the site of an alleged car-ramming in May against Israeli police, in which the Palestinian driver was shot dead by officers.

It comes after a period of relative calm in Sheikh Jarrah, although there have been violent incidents elsewhere in East Jerusalem.

A Palestinian man was shot dead by police on Saturday after allegedly stabbing an Israeli man near Damascus Gate, an entryway to the Old City.

On November 21, a Palestinian gunman shot dead an Israeli man and wounded others in the heart of the Old City. The attacker was killed by police.

The November 21 incident is the first time since March 2018 that an Israeli has been killed by a Palestinian in the Old City, government records show.