JERUSALEM: A Palestinian bus driver was found hanged in his vehicle in Jerusalem, sparking clashes Monday, after what Israel said was an apparent suicide but a colleague said looked like murder.
The incident happened late on Sunday, with a supervisor finding the man's body at a bus depot in Har Hotzvim, an industrial zone in Jewish west Jerusalem, police said in a statement.
Family members identified the victim as Yusuf Hasan al-Ramuni, from Al-Tur on the Mount of Olives in annexed east Jerusalem. They ruled out suicide by the 32-year-old father of two.
But results from an autopsy carried out on the body Monday with the family's consent found no evidence of foul play in his death, police said.
"No suspicion of criminal activity was found," said police spokeswoman Luba Samri in a statement after a post-mortem was carried out at Abu Kabir forensic institute near Tel Aviv.
Earlier, clashes erupted in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Abu Dis, where Ramuni's family lives, as scores of protesters burned tyres and threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas and sponge rounds, AFP correspondent said.
Demonstrators could also be seen trying to break down part of Israel's towering concrete separation barrier which cuts through the neighbourhood, police and the correspondent said.
The funeral in Abu Dis later Monday was attended by thousands of people, some of whom chanted "revenge".
Ramuni's death comes after months of tension in Arab east Jerusalem following the kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian teenager, with police in the city on high alert for violence on either side.
"According to an initial investigation, it appears there is no suspicion of criminal activity, in other words a suicide," Samri said in her statement, reporting "no signs of violence on the body".
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