BICOM

On Sunday night police arrested 33 men suspected of playing key roles in the recent violent demonstrations in and around the Old City of Jerusalem.

Raids took place across East Jerusalem neighbourhoods including A-Tur, Beit Hanina, Wadi Joz, Ras Al Amud, Issawiya, as well as in the Shuafat refugee camp and the Old City.

It is expected that following questioning the men will be brought before a court to have their detention extended.

A police spokesperson said that the major instigators of the riots had been identified using a combination of groundwork, intelligence-gathering, documentation, and “sophisticated use of technologies”.

During the rioting dozens of suspects gathered in a number of locations and threw stones, glass bottles and Molotov cocktails, set dumpsters alight, blocked roads and launched firecrackers at security forces, leading to a number of officers being injured.

In addition to those arrests, indictments were filed yesterday against five residents of East Jerusalem for offences including incitement, calling for terror attacks against Israel and for a string of posts uploaded onto Facebook supporting the terror attack on Temple Mount.

One of those indicted was Mohammed Mahiymar, 19, from Anata. Mahiymar was indicted in 2014 for a number of posts on his Facebook page which called for violence against Israeli civilians and security forces, and for praising and supporting Hamas and its military wing. A few hours after the Temple Mount attack on 14 July, Mahiymar wrote: “With a rock, a knife, an ax, a Molotov Cocktail or a lighter. Spontaneous without planning. Three martyrs came from Umm al-Fahm. A thousand consolations are with us and we are following you. We were raised on the holy way of death.”

The indictments, which were filed at the city’s Magistrates’ Court by the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office, were submitted with the approval of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.