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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian youth was attacked and beaten by a group of Jewish settlers at Damascus Gate near the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem on Friday night, a local political activist who was present at the time of the incident said.

22-year-old Ahmad Yaqub al-Ghoul lost consciousness as a result of bruising and bleeding he suffered after three Jewish settlers described as being in their 20s hit him with an iron bar and belts in the al-Musrara area just north of Damascus Gate.

Head of the Fatah youth movement in Jerusalem, Ahmad al-Ghoul, said that he was walking with Yaqub at the time of the attack, which he described as completely unprovoked.

"Three settlers blocked our car's path. ... We stopped at a red light in al-Musrara heading to Damascus Gate when they started hitting the car and cursing us. We could not continue our way since they were standing in front of the car."

"We stepped out of our car and they hit Ahmad on his eye. He fell down and his head hit a rock," Al-Ghoul continued.

He said that the police arrived in the area but detained their companion Fadi Maragha and took him for interrogation.

Al-Ghoul said that two of the settlers were also detained, but that the settlers claimed that the Palestinian youths had launched the attack.

Ahmad Yaqub al-Ghoul was taken to a hospital for treatment, where his condition was said to be moderate.

The attack comes amid a wave of anti-Palestinian hate crimes across Israel and in occupied Jerusalem, including at least six in a 24-hour period beginning Thursday evening.

The attacks come amid widespread tensions in the holy city, where individual Palestinians have recently carried out a series of attacks on Israeli Jews in response to Israeli authorities' violence against Palestinians.