Aryeh Deri
Aryeh DeriYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Shas chairman and Economics Minister Aryeh Deri strongly condemned the violent behavior of extremist haredi demonstrators Sunday night in Jerusalem, after an unruly crowd injured fire and rescue crews that arrived to the Mea Shearim neighborhood. 

On Monday, Deri called for the perpetrators to be punished under the full extent of the law.

"Woe to those who raise his hand against all those those who do sacred work saving lives," he said, and demanded that Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan mobilize all forces and resources to "get their hands on lawbreakers who interfere with normal life in the city, bring them to justice and take harsh action against them." 

The crew was working to put out a fire lit in a dumpster in Kikar HaShabbat, a central square in the haredi neighborhood.

While working to extinguish the flames, they were hit by bricks and rocks, according to the firefighter spokesperson in Jerusalem.

The firefighting crew reported that just earlier on Sunday night, it was attacked while putting out a dumpster similarly set on fire on Shivtei Yisrael Street, located not far away to the north of the western part of the Old City.

In that assault, glass bottles and railings were thrown at them, and "only by luck and thanks to the fact that the crew members were wearing helmets on their heads were they not wounded by the bottles, the railings and the broken glass."

The firefighter spokesperson in Jerusalem added that "Jerusalem firefighting and rescue services view with great severity the attack on firefighting crews time after time that could have harmed people."

"Jerusalem firefighters intend to act in cooperation with law enforcement agencies so that this serious and unacceptable phenomenon ends immediately."