A Palestinian protester throws a smoke grenade back at Israeli security forces during clashes at the entrance of the Israeli Ofer military prison, near the West Bank village of Betunia yesterday following a protest over Jewish visits to Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque compound.

AFP/Jerusalem

Israel’s top police officer yesterday pledged a new task force to combat Jerusalem unrest, after Palestinians hurled Molotov cocktails at an apartment taken over by Jewish settlers.
“We are moving ahead with a comprehensive programme incorporating the latest technology, intelligence gathering and the establishment of a new police unit for dealing with incidents,” Commissioner Yohanan Danino told officers.  
“Jerusalem residents are entitled to a high level of personal security...and the issue is at the top of Israel Police’s priorities,” he said in remarks carried on the force’s official Twitter feed.
No one was injured in the incident late Monday in the flashpoint East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan, where a group of Palestinians fired flares and threw petrol bombs at the building, a police statement said.
No serious damage was caused and no arrests were made.
The building was one of two structures housing 10 apartments that were taken over by Jewish settlers before dawn on Monday, sparking fierce local opposition.
Such takeovers have also been strongly condemned by the international community.
Silwan is a densely populated Palestinian neighbourhood that flanks the southern walls of Jerusalem’s Old City and has been the scene of frequent clashes involving a small group of hardcore settlers, the Israeli police and stone-throwing youths.
In addition, since July’s killing of a Palestinian teen by Jewish extremists and a bloody 50-day Israeli military offensive in Gaza that ended on August 26, Palestinians youths have been almost constantly on the streets throughout Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem throwing stones and petrol bombs at police, motorists and public transport.
There has also been a spate of clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli police over Jewish visits to Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque compound—Islam’s third holiest site.
Danino yesterday vowed to restore order.
“We cannot ignore public disorder incidents; stone-throwing, attacks with fireworks, throwing of petrol bombs, which characterise riots on Temple Mount and other areas in the city and its surroundings,” he said.
The Silwan clashes erupted three weeks ago when settlers moved into more than 25 apartments in the area that they claimed to have purchased.