By: TPS Staff
Police conducting a targeted operation in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood on Sunday night and exposed and seized several types of weapons hidden throughout a house owned by a local resident, including fireworks hidden in the children’s room.
The forces found two stun grenades inside one of the doorposts in the house, two fireworks racks in the children’s room, and an FN handgun and ammunition were found hidden inside an electric device.
Another package suspected to be explosives was treated by a police sapper.
The suspect, 48, was investigated on suspicion of the illegal possession of a firearm and was brought on Monday before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for an extension of his remand.
The police have launched an operation to curb criminal activity and violence within the Arab sector, which has claimed the lives of over 80 citizens in 2019.
Over the past year, the Israeli police have arrested more than 3,600 suspects for shootings, gun trafficking and the illegal use of weapons, more than 90% of them from Arab society.
Similarly, the state has filed approximately 1,000 indictments against offenders, and hundreds of other cases are under investigation or in preparation for indictment.
The police also located and seized more than 4,700 illegal weapons, including more than 1,300 rifles and weapons of various kinds, 275 grenades of various types, ammunition and explosive charges, most of them seized in Arab communities.
Data shows that Arab-Israelis are involved in 57 percent of all murder cases, 55% of the attempted murder cases, 59%of the arson incidents, 45% of the robberies, and 26% of drug cases.
Israelis Arabs represent about 20% of the general population.
In another development, Palestinian Authority (PA) officials are warning that the PA’s weakness and the estimated end of Mahmoud Abbas’ era are a good time for Hamas to rise, as Fatah is engaged in a survival battle and the leadership’s future depends on Abbas’s moves.
Considering this, Fatah activists have signaled their readiness to return to a wave of violent protests. Some Fatah leaders are also demanding action in light of the understanding that Hamas may precede them and activate its supporters in the PA.
While the PA and Fatah understand that the Arab League’s decision over the weekend rejecting the deal of the Century may prove to be ineffective, Hamas, on the other hand, has won support from Iran and Turkey. Phone calls took place between Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Kassem Suleimani’s replacement in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Hamas is expecting a Fatah delegation to visit Gaza within days, and the Strip is waiting to see if Hamas takes the lead in the battle against Israel, even at the price of ending the understandings with Israel.
In the meantime, Hamas is allowing terrorists in the Gaza Strip to fire mortars, rockets and fire balloons at Israel, signaling that it is leading the opposition to the Deal of the Century alongside its dissatisfaction with the pace of implementation of the understandings with Israel.
(TPS)
