Police arrest 2nd suspect over dumpster that injured woman during Jerusalem riot

Police arrested a second suspect on Tuesday over an ultra-Orthodox protest in Jerusalem earlier this month during which a dumpster was set ablaze and sent rolling into a passerby, seriously injuring her.

Authorities said the suspect was arrested in the Haredi town of Elad i central Israel, was brought to a police station for questioning and would be brought before a court on Wednesday.

Mirel Dzalovsky, a 40-year-old mother of 10, was taken to the city’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center while unconscious and was placed on a ventilator after the riot.

The hospital said Tuesday that the woman’s condition had improved and she was able to communicate, but was still in serious condition and using a ventilator.

The demonstration erupted on December 15 in response to the arrest of a man suspected of torching a cellphone store several months ago. Cellphone stores are sometimes targeted by religious extremists for not complying with “kosher rules” restricting the devices.

Police said on Sunday that they had arrested the first suspect in the case in the capital’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim.

תיעוד: דרדור הפח במחאת החרדים בירושלים שגרם לפציעתה של אישה באורח קשה@SuleimanMas1 (צילום: כיכר השבת) pic.twitter.com/d9oDukaB2p

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The suspect was taken in for questioning, police said, adding that they intend “to bring to justice all those involved in the incident.”

The suspects’ identities are barred from publication under a court-issued gag order.

Two people were detained during the violent demonstration for disturbing the peace and setting fires, but not for the woman’s injury.

Dzalovsky was passing by the protest when she was hit by a large metal dumpster filled with flaming garbage that had been sent rolling down a hill by some protesters.

The incident was met with condemnation from ultra-Orthodox political leaders, who are set to move into power in the next government, though Dzalovsky’s family has urged the public to stop “fanning the flames of hate” by looking for someone to blame.

Relatives told Channel 12 news it felt as if the public was “celebrating our horrific situation” and trying to use the incident as a case against “the people of Mea Shearim,” an insular ultra-Orthodox enclave seen as an epicenter of Haredi extremism.

They defended those responsible, saying they meant to block a road and “did not mean to kill anyone.”