JERUSALEM, June 4, 2011 (WAFA) – Clashes broke out Friday evening between Israeli police and Palestinian residents of Silwan, an East Jerusalem neighborhood, according to local witnesses.

Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing youth, said the witnesses. They said some tear gas canisters fell inside homes in the crowded neighborhood causing suffocation.

Several women, children and elderly people had to be treated for suffocation, and one 12-year-old boy was transferred to hospital.

Clashes erupt regularly in Silwan as Israel prepares to tear down 88 homes in the Palestinian neighborhood to replace them with a Jewish park.

M.N./M.A.