Israel arrests 1,550 Arab citizens over Gaza protests

JERUSALEM

Israeli police have arrested 1,550 Arab-Israelis in the past two weeks amid tension over Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, according to police on Monday.

"The campaign is a direct continuation of police activity in the past two weeks and more than 1,550 suspects have been arrested while about 150 indictments have been filed," the police said in a statement.

Arab towns in Israel have witnessed protests against Israeli attacks on Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, amid complaints of attacks on Arab-Israeli citizens by police and right-wing Israelis.

Police said it will continue intensively to apprehend those suspected of taking part in the recent “riots” and “bring them to justice”.

Tension escalated across the Palestinian territories since last month over an Israeli court verdict to evict Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem in favor of settlement groups. The situation flared up after Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque and assaulted worshippers inside.

The tension spread to the Gaza Strip, with Israel launching airstrikes that killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women, and injured more than 1,900 others. Health authorities in the West Bank confirmed that 31 were also killed in the occupied territory, totaling 279 across all Palestinian territories.

Twelve Israelis were also killed in Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. The fighting, the fiercest in years, came to a halt on Friday under an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara