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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Five Palestinians were detained from across Jerusalem Wednesday morning.

The Israeli police released a statement reporting that two Palestinian minors from Jerusalem were detained on suspicions of assaulting an Israeli settler.

The two detainees were transferred to the al-Qishla police station in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Israeli police also detained Hamzeh Mihles from Bab Hatta neighborhood, Hazem al-Sharbati from the Wadi al-Juz neighborhood and another Palestinian who was not immediately identified was detained from the al-Wad Street.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld did not immediately return a call for Ma'an.

Palestinian minors are routinely targeted by Israeli forces throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, with an average of 199 Palestinians under the age of 18 are detained monthly in Israeli prisons, according to human rights organization Defense for Children International-Palestine.

Tensions have continued in occupied East Jerusalem in recent weeks, as the Israeli municipality issued five demolition orders to Palestinian homes in the neighborhood of Silwan on Monday, and a Palestinian family facing eviction in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City has garnered the attention of Israeli, Palestinian, and international activists.

Palestinian neighborhoods of occupied East Jerusalem have seen increasing numbers of settlers, many of which move to the area with the assistance of organizations that facilitate the purchase and takeover of Palestinian homes in the Old City and occupied East Jerusalem in effort to "Judaize Jerusalem."

Recently reelected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to build thousands of homes for Jewish settlers in occupied East Jerusalem, in order to prevent any territorial concessions that would lead to the establishment there of a Palestinian capital.

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