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Late on Wednesday night, Israeli police arrested 52 Palestinians in East Jerusalem for alleged rioting, taking the total number of such arrests to over 600 since early July.
On Thursday, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that more arrests are to be expected.
“The majority of the incidents occurred in east Jerusalem against police officers who were on patrol; throwing stones and petrol bombs at them.Police operations are continuing”, he said. He also said that 175 of the arrested are minors and that he couldn’t say how many were arrested on Thursday.
“Some were released to house arrest, others were released until they face trial”, he added.
Rosenfeld also said that the incidents were related to clashes which erupted after the abduction and murder of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khder in East Jerusalem. Israeli prosecutors have charged 3 Jews with the brutal killing of Khder. In the clashes that followed the incident, amateur video footage broadcast on the internet showed helmeted riot police holding down and repeatedly kicking and punching 15-year-old Tariq Abu Khder, Mohammed Abu Khyder’s American cousin – Tariq’s seeming unconscious body was later dragged from the scene.
At the time, Tariq was on holiday with his family; they have since returned to their home in Florida.
The US State Department has said that at the time it was “profoundly troubled” by the incident and had called for “a speedy, transparent and credible investigation”.
Police investigations enforced by The Israeli Justice Ministry on Thursday that an arraignment against a police officer was drawn up and expected to be filed after a hearing.
According to Israeli Arab rights group Mossawa, 600 other Arab riot suspects from Israeli villages and towns have been arrested by police. The group’s Director Jafar Farah said that the accused were being taken to the court for a collective trial.
“The police bring the youths to the court as a group, not as individuals and the judge accepts that and refuses to take them case by case.This is unprecedented”, he said.