Jerusalem to step up security after second day of violence
In the night's latest incident, Arab rioters threw firecrackers, Molotov cocktails and rocks at Jewish homes in the Old City.
By JPOST.COM STAFFAttack on Jewish areas of Jerusalem's Old City
Jerusalem will step up its security level following threats made during a second violent day in the city.In an attempt to prevent rioting, Jerusalem police announced there will be restrictions on who can enter the Temple Mount for Friday prayers, Israel Radio reported.Though Muslim women of all ages will be able to enter the Temple Mount, only men above aged 40 and up will be allowed to enter the area.Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an additional Border Police company to the capital. The prime minister added that Israel will step up its intelligence and law enforcement efforts throughout the city. “This, and additional measures,” which he said he did not want to elaborate on, will restore quiet to the capital, he said.The decisions comes less than two days after a Hamas terrorist killed a three-month-old baby and injured several others in a violent car rampage.As usual, worshipers of other faiths are not permitted to pray on the Temple Mount.In the latest incident of violence, Israel Radio reported that Arab rioters threw firecrackers, Molotov cocktails and rocks at Jewish homes in the Old City. The rioters were eventually dispersed by Israel Police and border police. No damage or injuries were reported.On Thursday, masked Arab assailants hurled stones at a kindergarten in the Ma’aleh Zeitim neighborhood, not far from the Palestinian quarter of Ras al-Amud in the eastern part of the capital.There were no reports of injuries or damage. The assailants fled the scene immediately after the incident. Border Police and regular police personnel are conducting searches of the vicinity.
A young Palestinian, 12, who was arrested on Wednesday for hurling stones at Jewish motorists near the A-Tor neighborhood was summoned before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for a hearing on extending his remand.Earlier on Thursday, unidentified assailants threw stones at the Jerusalem light rail station in Shuafat, just hours after the deadly vehicular terror attack which killed a Jewish infant girl. Jerusalem police vow to step up arrests of rioters in wake of the attack.There were also reports of Palestinian stone-throwing toward police and Border Police units operating in the Issawiya section of east Jerusalem. Police used crowd-dispersal methods to quell the unrest.No injuries or damage was reported.Near the entrance to the Shuafat quarter, a bus carrying soldiers en route to the IDF Central Command base came under a hail of rocks thrown by local Palestinians. There were no injuries reported.The stone-throwers fled the scene soon after the incident.On his Facebook page, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman posted a status linking the terror attack in Jerusalem to the horrific shooting that paralyzed the Canadian capital of Ottawa.“The terror attacks that took place almost at the same time on opposite sides of the globe – Jerusalem and Ottawa – prove once again that terrorism is a worldwide plague that needs to be fought with force and without compromise,” Liberman wrote.“Terrorism doesn’t stem from construction of homes in Jerusalem, Ottawa, New York, Madrid, London, or Moscow,” the foreign minister wrote. “Rather, it stems from a struggle against extremist Islam throughout the Western world. We stand by our friend Canada, which has proven by virtue of its joining the war against Islamic State and its steadfast support of Israel, that it doesn’t capitulate to terror. We will also continue to be determined in the fight against terror and terrorists.”Daniel K. Eisenbud, Herb Keinon and Ben Hartman contributed to this article.