An Israeli policeman wearing a hard helmet is shown headbutting a Palestinian woman in a video released by a human rights group today.

The short film was recorded by the Israeli group B'Tselem during a protest against the demolition of Palestinian homes.

The Jerusalem municipality destroyed two houses because, it said, they had been built without permission.

The pictures, taken on November 5 but not released until today, show the actions of one policeman whose reinforced visor is pushed back above his helmet.

At one point he grasps the hands of a Palestinian woman and slams against the top of her head with his protective headgear. She reels back, clutching her head. Other residents object, and the policeman is seen grabbing the wrists of a Palestinian man and headbutting him as well.

According to an Israeli police spokesperson, the family living in the house that was destroyed refused to leave the building, and local residents threw stones and firebombs at officers.

"[On] the day, severe riots took place in Silwan," Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, told Reuters.

"As a result five policemen were wounded and evacuated to hospital, 11 locals were arrested for assaulting policemen and throwing firebombs and six police vehicles were damaged. This event was exceptional and is now being examined by an external police investigation unit."

Police were said by B'Tselem to have used stun grenades to break up the crowds. Witnesses later claimed police fired live ammunition in the air.

Silwan is in Arab East Jerusalem, an area annexed by Israel in 1967. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

B'Tselem monitors human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

In July, B'Tselem activists filmed two Israeli soldiers shooting a bound Palestinian with a rubber bullet. They were later charged by the army.

B'Tselem in Hebrew literally means "in the image of", but the group says it is also used as a term meaning human dignity.