Palestinians pelt Jerusalem kindergarten with rocks
A day after deadly terror attack, the capital’s light rail also targeted, with no end in sight for violence; police vow ‘zero tolerance’
Yifa Yaakov is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Less than a day after a terrorist attack on a light rail station in Jerusalem in which a three-month-old baby was killed, tensions flared in the capital.
Early Thursday morning, a Jewish kindergarten in East Jerusalem was pelted with rocks. No casualties were reported in the incident, which took place in the Ma’ale Hazeitim neighborhood on the Mount of Olives, near Ras el-Amud.
Police were searching for the perpetrators, who fled the scene.
Hours after Wednesday’s attack, which saw a Hamas supporter from East Jerusalem ram his car into a busy station, attacks on the light rail continued, with Arab residents of the city hurling rocks and damaging two train cars in Shuafat.
Police and border police deployed to the East Jerusalem village of Issawiya, near the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus, were also hit with rocks overnight Wednesday and throughout Thursday morning.
No casualties were reported in the attacks.
Jerusalem police vowed Thursday to crack down on any violence as they fanned out across the city.
“Jerusalem police emphasizes that it will demonstrate zero tolerance toward any incident of violence and will put its hand on anyone who disturbs public order in the city and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.
Wednesday’s car attack killed three-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun and injured eight others. The attacker, Silwan resident Abdel Rahman Al-Shaludi, was identified by an Israeli official as a member of terror group Hamas. He attempted to flee the scene on foot and was shot and by police, a police spokesperson said. He later died of his wounds.
The latest escalation was set off by the July kidnapping and killing of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir by three Jewish suspects in retaliation for the kidnapping and killing of yeshiva students Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Sha’ar and Eyal Yifrach by Hamas-linked Palestinian militants in the West Bank. The incidents, among other factors, sparked a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Times of Israel staff and AFP contributed to this report.
