More than half the detainees in violent terror attacks from recent days are minors, the country’s top cop tells a Knesset panel.
Acting police chief Bentzi Sau gives the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee a briefing on events of the recent days, and says that to date some 300 people have been arrested for hurling rocks or Molotov cocktails.
The large number of minors is problematic since by Israeli law they cannot be tried for their actions in most circumstances.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (L) speaks with Deputy Police Commissioner Bentzi Sau in Jerusalem on September 7, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Sixty-eight police officers have been wounded by shooting, rocks and Molotov cocktails, Sau tells the panel. He says the force is implementing a new strategy according to which police officers take the front line in altercations with Palestinian rioters.
Some 2,000 cops were moved to the Jerusalem District in recent weeks. Police are determined to keep away from the Temple Mount any individual who will try to “inflame the territory,” Sau says. He says that 54 Jews and 62 Arabs have restraining orders from the Temple Mount and the Old City.
The police chief says that because of the large number of cops in the capital, response time to any event is now between seconds and a minute and a half at most.
The Knesset committee discussion was attended by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, Jerusalem District Police Commander Moshe Edri and other senior officers from the district.
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