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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities detained a prominent religious figure in East Jerusalem's Shufat refugee camp on Thursday evening, locals said.

Sheikh Abdullah Alqam, the head of a popular committee of Palestinian clans, was summoned to the Shufat checkpoint before being transferred to police custody, they said.

An Israeli police spokesman said he was looking into the incident.

Tensions are high in the camp over Israeli plans to seal the Ras al-Khamis checkpoint, a move which will force all the residents to use a single checkpoint. Residents say the move will further cut the camp off from the rest of the city.

Shufat is the only Palestinian refugee camp within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem and is administered by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war and later annexed the city, a move never recognized by the international community.