Occupied Jerusalem: The Israeli regime’s top police officer on Tuesday pledged a new task force to combat unrest in occupied Jerusalem, after Palestinians hurled Molotov cocktails at an apartment taken over by Jewish colonists.
“We are moving ahead with a comprehensive programme incorporating the latest technology, intelligence gathering and the establishment of a new police unit for dealing with incidents,” Commissioner Yohanan Danino told officers.
“[Occupied] Jerusalem residents are entitled to a high level of personal security...and the issue is at the top of Israel Police’s priorities,” he said, apparently referring to the Jewish colonists, in remarks carried on the force’s official Twitter feed.
No one was injured in the incident late on Monday in the occupied east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan, where a group of Palestinians fired flares and threw petrol bombs at the building, a police statement said.
No serious damage was caused and no arrests were made.
The building was one of two structures housing ten apartments that were taken over by Jewish colonists before dawn on Monday, sparking fierce local opposition.
Such takeovers have also been strongly condemned by the international community.
Silwan is a densely populated Palestinian neighbourhood that flanks the southern walls of occupied Jerusalem’s Old City and has been the scene of frequent clashes involving a small group of hard core colonists, the Israeli police and stone-throwing youths.
In addition, since July’s killing of a Palestinian teenager by Jewish extremists and a bloody 50-day Israeli war in Gaza that ended on August 26, Palestinian youths have been almost constantly on the streets throughout Israeli-annexed occupied east Jerusalem throwing stones and petrol bombs at police, motorists and public transport.
There has also been a spate of clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli police over Jewish incursion in occupied Jerusalem’s Al Haram Al Sharif — Islam’s third holiest site. The site is also revered by Jews.
