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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Sunday detained a young Palestinian boy and his uncle in the al-Tur neighborhood of East Jerusalem, leading to clashes in the area, witnesses said.

Locals told Ma'an that Israeli special forces assaulted 10-year-old Muhammad Afeef Khweis as he was sitting in a park in the neighborhood, causing him to panic.

Israeli forces also assaulted Khweis' family members, who tried to stop the arrest. The officers removed the hijab of one of the women as pushing and shoving ensued.

Muhammad's 50-year-old uncle Hani Saleh Khweis was pepper-sprayed and arrested, despite suffering from shortness of breath.

As Muhammad Abu Ghannam, the head of a teacher-parent committee at a local school, tried to provide the uncle with first aid, he was hit in the head by Israeli forces.

Israeli forces regularly arrest minors in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, often on the pretext of stone-throwing.

East Jerusalem is internationally recognized as Palestinian territory but Israel occupied it in 1967 and later annexed it in a move considered illegitimate abroad.