Israeli settlers have forcefully taken over 25 apartments in Arab east Jerusalem, residents and Palestinian leaders say, with the new occupants claiming they had legitimately bought the properties.
The incident on Tuesday led to clashes between Arab residents and Jewish settlers in the Silwan neighbourhood, which is right outside Jerusalem's Old City and near the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
It came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas traded inflammatory accusations at the UN General Assembly in New York, making the prospects of peace look even bleaker.
Mohammed al-Khayat, whose family owns three apartments in one Silwan building, told AFP settlers had broken the locks on empty properties and then changed them.
A police spokeswoman said clashes broke out later when one Palestinian man tried to get into one of the buildings.
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She said the properties belonged to settlers, who had presented documents proving they had purchased them.
But Mohammed Dahla, a lawyer representing the Palestinian owners, said they denied selling them.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat blamed Netanyahu for encouraging illegal Israeli settlement in Palestinian areas.
"They (settlers) translated Netanyahu's speech into the act of taking over seven buildings in occupied east Jerusalem," he told AFP.
That was a reference to Netanyahu telling the General Assembly Monday that settlers were "not occupiers in the Land of Israel", invoking a "singular attachment to this land for over 3000 years".
The settlement issue has derailed round after round of peace talks, most recently in April.
Netanyahu also accused Abbas of slander over claims Friday that Israel had waged a "war of genocide" in its 50-day summer military campaign against militants in the Gaza Strip, which killed nearly 2200 Palestinians.
More than 70 people were killed on the Israeli side.
