The riots broke out after the Lavi police unit entered the Arab neighborhood of Issawiya, located near Hebrew University’s Mt. Scopus campus. They came to arrest a man who had been seen breaking into and stealing a car in the nearby French Hill neighborhood.
Police apprehended the man at the entrance to Issawiya with the stolen car and, despite the violent efforts of a crowd of Arab youths and elderly to prevent his arrest, put him in a police vehicle and brought him to the French Hill police station. Meanwhile, the mob tried to roll the stolen car into the village.
A van then followed the police and, according to the officers, tried to run over a policeman, hitting him and then speeding away. The policeman managed to shoot the driver, 36-year-old Sameer Rivkhi Dari. Dari’s passengers then dumped him out of the van and sped back to Issawiya. He was brought to Hadassah’s Mt. Scupus hospital, where he died of his wounds. The policeman was also hospitalized.
Rioting residents of Issawiya have their own versions of the events. They claim that Dari had not tried to run over the police officer, but was simply concerned with helping out his nephew - the man arrested for stealing the car. Others say he merely got out of his car to see what was happening.
After the shooting incident, a mob tried to head for Hadassah Hospital, where police prevented them from nearing the facility by firing warning shots and using tear gas and stun grenades. Other groups of rioters took alternate routes and succeeded in setting several random vehicles ablaze near the hospital.
“The police seem not to care about maintaining calm,” an Arab resident told Israeli daily Yediot Acharonot. “They murdered Sameer and renewed our Intifada here. Now residents have blocked all the entrances and roads with burning tires.”
Dari's body was taken for an autopsy, and the Israel Police are investigating the incident.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Supreme Court sentenced an Israeli-Arab to two and a half years in prison for terrorist activities. He was found guilty of having contacts with the Fatah terror group, providing terrorists with detailed maps of Israeli sites, and smuggling instruction manuals for producing explosives into Israel.
Arab violence elsewhere Wednesday included attempted bombings of IDF forces in the Shechem region. IDF troops shot and killed a man placing a bomb, and fired shots at four others planting a bomb on a military road near Mt. Eival; three of them were wounded before they escaped.
One bomb near the Balata slums in Shechem blew up and wounded an IDF paratroopers company commander, resulting in the loss of his foot. A roadside bomb was also detonated near an IDF patrol near the Gaza border, but failed to cause injuries or damage.
A large bomb was also found and neutralized by IDF sappers near Kibbutz Nachal Oz Thursday morning, and two mortar shells were fried from PA-controlled Gaza at the Karni Crossing terminal. No injuries were reported.
Twenty wanted terrorists were arrested in Judea and Samaria Wednesday. Islamic Jihad terrorist Sameer al-Ghoul was killed after opening fire on troops who had come to arrest him.
The IDF also closed down two offices of the “Dawa” Islamic charity organizations in Jenin Wednesday, due to the fact that the offices were used to fund the Islamic Jihad terror group.
Police apprehended the man at the entrance to Issawiya with the stolen car and, despite the violent efforts of a crowd of Arab youths and elderly to prevent his arrest, put him in a police vehicle and brought him to the French Hill police station. Meanwhile, the mob tried to roll the stolen car into the village.
A van then followed the police and, according to the officers, tried to run over a policeman, hitting him and then speeding away. The policeman managed to shoot the driver, 36-year-old Sameer Rivkhi Dari. Dari’s passengers then dumped him out of the van and sped back to Issawiya. He was brought to Hadassah’s Mt. Scupus hospital, where he died of his wounds. The policeman was also hospitalized.
Rioting residents of Issawiya have their own versions of the events. They claim that Dari had not tried to run over the police officer, but was simply concerned with helping out his nephew - the man arrested for stealing the car. Others say he merely got out of his car to see what was happening.
After the shooting incident, a mob tried to head for Hadassah Hospital, where police prevented them from nearing the facility by firing warning shots and using tear gas and stun grenades. Other groups of rioters took alternate routes and succeeded in setting several random vehicles ablaze near the hospital.
“The police seem not to care about maintaining calm,” an Arab resident told Israeli daily Yediot Acharonot. “They murdered Sameer and renewed our Intifada here. Now residents have blocked all the entrances and roads with burning tires.”
Dari's body was taken for an autopsy, and the Israel Police are investigating the incident.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Supreme Court sentenced an Israeli-Arab to two and a half years in prison for terrorist activities. He was found guilty of having contacts with the Fatah terror group, providing terrorists with detailed maps of Israeli sites, and smuggling instruction manuals for producing explosives into Israel.
Arab violence elsewhere Wednesday included attempted bombings of IDF forces in the Shechem region. IDF troops shot and killed a man placing a bomb, and fired shots at four others planting a bomb on a military road near Mt. Eival; three of them were wounded before they escaped.
One bomb near the Balata slums in Shechem blew up and wounded an IDF paratroopers company commander, resulting in the loss of his foot. A roadside bomb was also detonated near an IDF patrol near the Gaza border, but failed to cause injuries or damage.
A large bomb was also found and neutralized by IDF sappers near Kibbutz Nachal Oz Thursday morning, and two mortar shells were fried from PA-controlled Gaza at the Karni Crossing terminal. No injuries were reported.
Twenty wanted terrorists were arrested in Judea and Samaria Wednesday. Islamic Jihad terrorist Sameer al-Ghoul was killed after opening fire on troops who had come to arrest him.
The IDF also closed down two offices of the “Dawa” Islamic charity organizations in Jenin Wednesday, due to the fact that the offices were used to fund the Islamic Jihad terror group.