Police arrest 74 for participation in ethnic rioting over the past two weeks

Israeli police say that over the past 24 hours they arrested 74 Israelis suspected of involvement in ethnic rioting across Israel in recent days.

The arrests are part of Operation Law and Order, a crackdown against violent gangs and rioters who took part in inter-ethnic violence in mixed Arab-Jewish towns over the past two weeks.

Around 1,550 arrests have been made and about 150 indictments filed by police since the riots began two weeks ago, police say.

According to Hebrew media reports, most of those arrested have been Arab Israelis, reflecting the larger scale of violence from the Arab side, according to police.

But police have also drawn criticism from the Arab community after reports of officers standing by while Jewish rioters attacked Arabs in some areas.