Police round up illegal Palestinians, J’lem protesters

Operation Green Candles largest crackdown on weapons, illegal workers in years

Over 1,600 police officers from multiple units arrested 421 Palestinian suspects during far-reaching overnight raids Tuesday and Wednesday in one of the largest security crackdowns in recent history.

According to police, Operation Green Candles was carried out following a protracted investigation into illegal residents, weapons possession, terrorist activity, and several other criminal offenses.

“It was a massive operation carried out by border police, with aid from Special Patrol and helicopter units, that resulted in the arrests of 370 illegal workers, 38 of whom are from the Gaza Strip,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld on Thursday.

“In addition to finding illegal workers, dozens of suspects were arrested throughout the country after gas canisters converted into explosive devices, pipe bombs, petrol bombs and three other illegal weapons were seized.”

Included in the areas that were raided was a weapons factory inside a home in Abu Dis that manufactured 55 explosives made from gas canisters believed to have recently supplied a terrorist cell captured in the West Bank.

In Tamra, located in the Lower Galilee, police seized two pipe bombs, while several suspects were arrested in the Negev city of Rahat for storing 16 firebombs and three air guns.

In Ra’anana two suspects from Kalkilya were arrested for breaking into homes and businesses.

Police said similar operations will continue indefinitely to stop crimes and terrorist activity before they take place. approximately 80 residents of east Jerusalem have been arrested since President Donald Trump announced that the US recognizes the city as the capital of Israel, over involvement in protests against the move.

At least 30 protesters were arrested during the various demonstrations. Forty more were arrested in a largescale operation throughout various neighborhoods on Wednesday and Thursday.

Dozens of Israel Police and Border Police personnel raided the neighborhoods of Isawiya, Wadi Joz, Ras al-Amud, a-Tur and Shuafat, as well as the Shuafat refugee camp and the Old City, and arrested people suspected of disrupting the public order while taking part in demonstrations.

Since Trump’s December 6 announcement, protests took place throughout the eastern part of Jerusalem. While the main demonstration was outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate last Friday, smaller protests and clashes with police took place in various other locations.

On Thursday, dozens of protesters clashed with police at Damascus Gate. The rioters threw bottles and rocks at police officers, and also physically assaulted them. Six suspects were arrested.

Over the course of the week, several policemen were wounded and needed medical attention.

Police said they would “act firmly and relentlessly against any person who will take part in disruption of the public order while trying to fan the flames, incite and harm the police forces and citizens.”

Additional protests are planned for Friday, following the Muslim afternoon prayers on the Temple Mount.