Tensions soar as Jerusalem violence continues
Palestinians riot in city’s east and north, stones hurled at multiple sites across capital; anti-Arab graffiti found in public park
Tensions flared in the capital Thursday in the wake of a Wednesday terrorist attack on a Jerusalem light rail station in which three-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun was killed and eight others were injured.
Police on Thursday dispersed a crowd of rioters who were throwing stones at the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz. No injuries were reported but the stones caused damage to a vehicle, according to the Ynet news site.
A police undercover unit arrested two Palestinian teenagers in Shuafat Thursday evening for throwing stones at the city’s light rail.
Earlier, a Palestinian woman was pelted with stones in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s old city. Police forces were searching the area for the perpetrators of the attack.
A medical team that arrived at the scene treated the woman for minor injuries.
In a separate incident, the words ‘death to Arabs’ and ‘die Arabs’ were found spray-painted in a public park in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, the NRG news site reported.
Early Thursday morning, a Jewish kindergarten in the Ma’ale Hazeitim neighborhood on the Mount of Olives, near Ras el-Amud in East Jerusalem, was pelted with rocks. No casualties were reported in the incident.
Police were searching for the perpetrators, who fled the scene.
In the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, masked Palestinian protesters hurled stones at Jewish pedestrians on a street in nearby East Talpiot. No injuries or damage were reported.
Palestinians also threw stones at two buses near Gethsemane, east of the Old City, lightly injuring one man.
Earlier, police arrested a Palestinian man at a West Bank checkpoint near the southern entrance to Jerusalem after the man had allegedly assaulted a security guard at the site, Israel Radio reported.
Wednesday’s train station attack was carried out by Silwan resident Abdel Rahman Al-Shaludi, who was identified by an Israeli official as a member of terror group Hamas. He attempted to flee the scene of the attack on foot and was shot by police, a police spokesperson said. Al-Shaludi later died of his wounds in hospital.
Hours after the attack, Arab residents of the capital hurled rocks at a train station in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat, causing damage to two train cars at the site.
Police and Border Police forces were showered with stones overnight Wednesday and throughout Thursday morning in the East Jerusalem village of Issawiya, near the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus. No casualties were reported in the attacks.
The latest escalation in violence was set off by the July kidnapping and killing of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir by three Jewish terrorists in retaliation for the kidnapping and killing of yeshiva students Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Sha’ar and Eyal Yifrach by Hamas-linked Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank. The incidents, among other factors, sparked a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Adiv Sterman and AFP contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.