Police officer injured in riots near Jerusalem's Old City

A police officer was injured after being hit in the head and vehicles were damaged during riots by the Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday night, according to Israel Police. 

Rioters threw stones at police amid efforts to disperse the disturbance. The person suspected of attacking the officer was arrested.

Riots were also reported near the Damascus Gate of the Old City. A vehicle belonging to Jewish Israelis was reportedly attacked near the Old City as well, with pictures shared by Palestinian media showing a vehicle with the windshield cracked. 

Video from the scene showed crowds running in the area and attacking police officers, with one video shared on social media showing a police officer being thrown to the ground.

A video shared on social media on Thursday also showed a haredi youth being smacked in the face by a reportedly Arab person on the light rail in Jerusalem."Today it's a slap to the face, tomorrow it could be a knife," the boy's father warned on Friday, adding that his son felt insulted for being attacked. "That smack to the face was aimed towards any one of us, just for being Jewish," the father insisted. Earlier on Friday, a 21-year-old resident of Jerusalem's Beit Hanina neighborhood suspected of carrying out the attack was arrested by police. "The shocking and antisemitic documentation is horrifying and frightening, the heart aches and finds it hard to believe that precisely in the Jewish state, an ultra-Orthodox person is brutally attacked by a miscreant just because of his ultra-Orthodox appearance," said Shas leader Arye Deri in response to the attack of the haredi youth on Thursday night. "I call on the Israel Police to arrest the lowly offender and to severely punish him."

#شاهد شاب مقدسي يلطم متدين صهيوني على وجهه داخل القطار الخفيف في يوم اعلان احتلال فلسطين pic.twitter.com/9lMT3tMVFg

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) April 15, 2021

"I was shocked to see tonight the video of the attack on the young yeshiva student on the light rail in Jerusalem," tweeted Transportation Minister Miri Regev. "I instructed the National Public Transport Authority to act immediately with the Israel Police, in order to bring about a speedy investigation of the incident and the full severity of the law with those responsible."The riots come as Muslims in Jerusalem and around the world celebrate Ramadan.