JERUSALEM -- An American citizen has been arrested for throwing rocks at Israeli security forces earlier this week, WND has learned.
Jerusalem police spokesman Commander Assaf Aharoni confirmed to WND the U.S. citizen, who is of Arab descent, will be detained until at least Sunday, according to a court order.
The U.S. citizen was taking part in confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli security forces at the main entrance to Shoafat, the Palestinian-majority section of eastern Jerusalem that has been the scene of intense clashes in recent days.
According to police sources, the U.S. citizen was wearing a scarf to cover his face and was arrested while throwing rocks at Israeli police and Israel Defense Force soldiers.
The American had more rocks in his pocket when he was detained, the police sources said.
The arrest took place as Israeli forces stepped up measures to clamp down on the Palestinian riots hitting the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.
One of the new tactics being used involves a special unit of the IDF mingling amid the Palestinian mob undercover, dressed up as Palestinian rocket throwers. The masquerading IDF forces then turn the tables on the mob and disrupt the protest from within the rock-throwing throngs, Israel’s Channel 2 television reported Wednesday.
Palestinian chaos escalated Wednesday, with at least three separate stabbing events and protests and rioting across the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.
One Israeli man was stabbed by a Palestinian attacker outside the entrance to a large shopping mall in the Tel Aviv satellite city of Petah Tikva. The attacker was reportedly apprehended after he was first overpowered by civilians at the scene.
Also Wednesday, in the city of Kiryat Gat, 35 miles south of Tel Aviv, an 18-year-old Palestinian was killed by police after he stabbed an Israeli soldier and stole his rifle.
At about the same time, a 15-year-old Palestinian was arrested in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor after attempting to stab Israeli special forces and border police officers who are deployed in the area.
Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli man was stabbed by a Palestinian woman on a main pedestrian thoroughfare in Jerusalem’s Old City. The man suffered light wounds.
There was a spike in the violence Friday, when a horrific scene unfolded at the entrance to Jerusalem’s walled Old City, where a Palestinian terrorist murdered two Israeli males and injured a 22-year-old woman, along with her 2-year-old baby.
WND exclusively reported that on Saturday, two 18-year-old American students narrowly escaped a lynching when they mistakenly entered a largely Palestinian Arab neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem.
The students were attacked by a mob of at least six young Palestinian men, at least one of whom was armed with a knife. One of the students ran away on foot while the other was stabbed and beaten for several minutes.