The Passover festivities in Jerusalem were marred by widespread violence as Palestinian mobs turned on Jewish worshipers. On Sunday, masked Palestinian men were seen pelting stones and assaulting Jews in Jerusalem’s Old City and near the Temple Mount.
“Video footage from the attack showed young men throwing stones at the buses passing by, smashing the windows and causing other damage to the vehicles,” the Israeli TV channel i24News reported. A “security camera footage showed a group of Orthodox Jews on their way to the Western Wall to pray being attacked in the Old City,” the broadcaster added.
Israeli security forces are acting to quell the violence in the Holy City. “Police and Border Police fighters have so far arrested two suspects on suspicion of stone-throwing, and police forces continue to operate in the area and are currently conducting searches to locate more suspects,” the Israeli police said in a statement obtained by the Legal Insurrection. “We will continue to act resolutely against violators and lawbreakers and maintain public peace and security,” the statement added.
The escalation of violence in Jerusalem comes as Israel is in the midst of a Palestinian terror wave triggered in the wake of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. In recent weeks, at least 14 people have been murdered by terrorists linked to the Islamic State, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups.
The Times of Israel covered the Palestinian violence unleashed on Sunday:
Israeli police entered the Temple Mount complex on Sunday morning as hundreds of Palestinians allegedly sought to block Jewish visitors from visiting the holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City, just two days after significant clashes there.Also Sunday morning, Palestinian rock-throwers attacked several Egged buses just outside the Old City en route to the Western Wall, smashing windows and leaving several passengers lightly wounded, including a 13-year-old girl.According to police, hundreds of Palestinians youths — many of them masked — were stockpiling rocks in the Al-Aqsa compound which they planned to use along with iron bars and makeshift barricades to riot and try to prevent non-Muslims from touring the compound.“Alongside the visits, freedom of worship will continue to be fully preserved for the worshipers on the Temple Mount,” a police statement said. “The Israel Police will continue to act against lawbreakers and rioters.”Also Sunday, rocks were hurled at buses just outside the Old City that were heading to the Western Wall.The Magen David Adom ambulance service said seven people were hurt in the incidents and taken to the city’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center with light injuries. Police said two suspects were arrested and that officers were searching the area for others.The driver of one of the buses said that 15-20 Palestinian youths were lying in wait for the bus as it neared the Old City and lobbed a heavy volley of rocks at it, shattering windows and the windshield. “I told the passengers to lie on the floor,” the driver recounted.
The Arab rioters received support from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Turkey’s Erdogan regime, Israeli media said, citing police sources. “Police believes hundreds of Palestinian youths who have been clashing with forces are funded by the PA, local contributions and Turkey, who want Hamas to join the fight for al Aqsa by firing rockets into Israel,” the Israeli news website Ynet News reported Sunday.
The news outlet also noted the role of the Mufti of Jerusalem, the foremost Islamic authority for the Palestinians, in the incitement of violence in the Holy City. “Jerusalem Mufti, Mohammed al-Husseini the Sunni Muslim cleric in charge of Jerusalem’s Islamic holy places, his deputy, the chairman of the Supreme Muslim Council, and the director of the al- Aqsa mosque are all charged with the management of the site. Some among them are regarded by Israeli security officials as dominant forces behind the violence” the Ynet News reported Sunday.
The Muslim clerics on Temple Mount used the prayer call to incite violence and terror against Jews and Israelis. “Calls on loud speakers urge Palestinian youth to stay and ‘protect the Muslim holy sight’ claiming it was under threat from Jews, as the instigators called on the Hamas rulers of Gaza, to join in the defense of the mosques by launching rocket fire on Israel,” the Ynet News added.
Israeli government granted security forces full authority to go after Palestinian mobs in wake of latest round of violence. “Israeli security forces will be given a “free hand” by the political echelon to conduct any operational activity, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said following another day of Palestinian rioting in Jerusalem’s Old City and Temple Mount,” The Jerusalem Post reported.
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