Israeli police on Tuesday rescued an Arab youth who was caught in an anti-Arab demonstration in Jerusalem, amid a wave of violence against Arabs after the bodies of three kidnapped Israeli teens were found in the occupied West Bank.
Hundreds of far-right activists marched the streets of Jerusalem on Tuesday, as Gil-Ad Sha'ar and Naftali Frankel, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, were brought to rest in a joint funeral held in Modi'in near Jerusalem.
The demonstrators chanted "death to Arabs" and waved placards reading "Enough talking, we demand revenge!" They also called on the Israeli government to apply death penalty to "terrorist murderers."
The demonstrators flocked at the entrance to Jerusalem, blocking the traffic to the city for about an hour, before continuing towards the Ben Yehuda Market and the Arab Old City, looking for Arab bystanders.
The Israeli police blocked them from entering the Old City and arrested 28 demonstrators, mostly minors, a police spokesman said.
The discovery of the bodies of the three Israeli teens, who were kidnapped near Hebron on June 12, has raised the tension between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem, triggering several cases of attacks against Arabs overnight on Tuesday.
Dozens of extremists rallied at a pizzeria in Ramat Shlomo, a settlement neighborhood in Jerusalem where an Arab employee was working. Riot police rescued the worker and dispersed the protestors.
In another apparent hate crime, a Jewish youth attacked an Arab taxi driver with pepper spray, causing him light injuries. The police have held the attacker for investigation.