Israel puts Border Police reservists on alert following East Jerusalem riots

Israeli authorities have put Border Police reservists on alert Thursday in the face of unrest in East Jerusalem on Wednesday and a spike in tensions over clashes and Israeli security operations in recent weeks in several parts of the West Bank.

Border Police Chief Amir Cohen has indicated that a total of ten companies of reservists have been put on alert for a possible deterioration of the situation and added that the authorities “will continue to act with determination against violent hooligans.”

“We have reinforced Jerusalem and the West Bank with troops to deal with these incidents,” Cohen said, as reported by the Israeli daily ‘Yedioth Ahronoth’, after two officers were injured on Wednesday while trying to disperse a protest in the Isauiya neighborhood.

Protesters also set tires and garbage cans on fire to create barricades on Wednesday in several East Jerusalem neighborhoods, incidents that have continued until early Thursday, when the situation is relatively calm, as reported by ‘The Times of Israel’.

“This is not ‘Guardians of the Wall 2,’ but the situation in Jerusalem could get out of control,” security sources quoted by Israeli public broadcaster Kan as saying, referring to violent incidents in May.

Israeli security forces have arrested more than 20 people for their alleged connection to the unrest, including nine arrested in raids in Isauiya, incidents that also came on the heels of the death of a teenager at the hands of Israeli forces near the West Bank city of Hebron.

For his part, Nabil abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, stressed that the president is maintaining contacts to “stop” the upsurge in Israeli operations “against the Palestinian people.”

In this regard, he denounced that “the persistence of the Israeli occupation” has brought the situation “to the brink of an explosion” and added that “the occupation government is solely responsible for the consequences”, as reported by the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Abu Rudeina has stressed that the international community, with the United States at the forefront, must “intervene immediately” to “quickly stop this continuing escalation before it is too late,” while calling for “an end to the policy of condemnation and silence that encourages the occupation to commit more crimes.”

“We appreciate the resolve of our people and their confrontation in the face of the occupation army and the settlers, who continue their attacks on our land, our people and our holy sites throughout the Palestinian territories,” Abbas’ spokesman reiterated.