Dozens of right-wing protesters gathered at the entrance to Jerusalem on Saturday evening calling on the Israeli government to take action following a series of Palestinian terror attacks in recent weeks, including a deadly shooting in the West Bank Thursday that claimed the life of a 25-year-old yeshiva student.
Police said they arrested 13 people for disorderly conduct, including one person who was carrying “weapons.” According to Ynet, these included a knife and brass knuckles.
In footage from the demonstration Saturday, police can be seen using a water cannon to disperse some protesters, whom they said were trying to block a highway. One person was lightly hurt, medics said.
In one video from the scene, some of the protesters — mainly Jewish youths — can be heard chanting “death to Arabs,” while waving Israeli flags.
The protest Saturday came hours after a 38-year-old man was lightly hurt when he was stabbed at a checkpoint close to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron by an elderly Palestinian woman.
The victim, a resident of the Kiryat Arba settlement, struggled with the Palestinian attacker before Israeli troops subdued her without opening fire, police said in a statement.
המפגינים בגשר המיתרים: “מוות לערבים. שיישרף לכם הכפר” pic.twitter.com/71qzMz8XnF
— שחר גליק (@glick_sh) December 18, 2021
The attack occurred close to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which is considered holy by both Jews and Muslims and is used for prayers by worshipers of both faiths. It has been a major flashpoint for violence.
The tomb is frequented by Jews during Shabbat and holidays and often under military protection.
That incident came amid a rise in Palestinian terror attacks in recent weeks, with four alone taking place in Jerusalem, including a deadly shooting late last month committed by a member of Hamas.
On Thursday, Yehuda Dimentman, 25, was killed and two people were injured in a deadly shooting attack in Homesh in the West Bank. Dimentman was riding in a car at the entrance to the settlement when the vehicle was fired upon.
A military official said the car had been ambushed from the side of the road.
Dimentman was a student at a yeshiva, or religious school, near where the attack took place. Homesh is a settlement that was meant to have been abandoned as part of a 2005 eviction, but is now the site of the illegally operated yeshiva.
The father of a nine-month-old son lived in the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron with his family.
The military said it was still looking for the attackers, expanding its search Saturday in the Jenin area in the West Bank.
The Palestinian terror groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine praised Thursday’s attack, but did not take responsibility for it.