Hundreds of left-wing demonstrators marched on Monday evening from the Knesset towards the Prime Minister's Residence on Azza Street in Jerusalem, where they broke through police barriers and lit a bonfire.
"The many marchers," the Israel Police said, "broke through some of the police checkpoints, and some of them began to disrupt the order on Azza Street and confront the police. Some of them also lit a bonfire in the intersection."
So far, the police have arrested nine suspects: Some of them are suspected of attacking police officers and of disrupting the order, and four of them are suspected of setting fire or trying to set a fire in violation of the law.
Shikma Bressler, one of the leaders of the left-wing protests, blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said at the demonstration, "The truth is clear - the State of Israel has no leadership. It has a Prime Minister who smiles as an officer knocks on the door of more [bereaved] families."
Bressler charged, "This neglect, this moral disgrace, accompanies us every hour of every day. It happens on our watch, goes against the Israeli ethos and eats away at our most basic human foundations."
She added, "Every day that this group of separatist extremists holds the wheel of power is another day in which the defeat of our enemies moves further away, and more importantly, every such day may bring with it a new disaster, a new madness, a new destruction."