‘Unprecedented’: Jerusalem’s Old City shut down
More than 3,500 police officers are participating in a massive, nearly unprecedented security operation to bar Arab non-residents of Jerusalem’s Old City from entering the ancient walled city for the next 48 hours, Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed in a radio interview Sunday.
“We’re dealing at the moment with a wave of terror, I would call it. We’re being very careful with ongoing security assessments,” Rosenfeld said on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” speaking live from the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Following a series of Palestinian terrorist attacks in and near the Old City in the last 24 hours, the Israeli government took the highly unusual step of only permitting entry into the Old City to “Israeli citizens, Old City residents, tourists, Old City business owners and pupils learning there,” according to a Jerusalem police statement.
The measure is being described in Israeli media as “unprecedented.”
Rosenfeld confirmed the Old City is entirely closed to all Arab residents of Israel who live outside the city.
The move comes as thousands of Jews are entering the Old City to pray at the Western Wall during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, a day at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles celebrating the giving of the Torah.
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Rosenfeld said that earlier Sunday 12 potential suspects were removed from Temple Mount area, with police fearing the Arabs were planning to target Jews in the area.
Also earlier on Sunday, in the second such incident in 24 hours, a terrorist stabbed a 15-year-old outside of a gas station near the Old City in Jerusalem, moderately wounding the teenager. The attacker fled the scene and was shot and killed by police while stalking a main thoroughfare with a large knife.
On Saturday, a horrific scene unfolded at the entrance to Jerusalem’s walled Old City, where a Palestinian terrorist murdered two Israeli males and injured a 22-year-old woman, along with her two-year-old baby.
An Israeli police spokesperson said the jihadist, identified as 19-year-old law student Mohand Halabi from Ramallah, first stabbed the father of the baby and stole the man’s legally-owned gun, utilizing the weapon to shoot indiscriminately at a group of nearby tourists.
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