An undercover Israeli police officer was lightly wounded on Thursday night in an attempted lynching in Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood, according to Israeli media reports.
The incident began after two off-duty officers in civilian clothing drove into the city’s Issawiya neighborhood. The officers were confronted by residents for an undetermined reason, who pursued them to the nearby French Hill neighborhood, according to Channel 12.
There, “at least” six assailants fell upon the officers’ vehicle, hurling a heavy stone block though the windscreen, wresting the doors open and assaulting the vehicle’s occupants. One of the officers was pulled from the vehicle by the mob, which also managed to steal one of the officers’ weapons.
The other officer fired into the air to disperse the crowd, according to the report.
Six Issawiya residents were subsequently arrested in connection with the incident, the investigation into which is ongoing, according to police.
“It does not matter to us whether the attackers knew they were police officers, or thought they were civilians,” Channel 12 quoted a senior police source as saying. “The very fact that they were not afraid to do it in the middle of the street should set off a warning light. If it turns out that the suspects arrested are indeed the ones who carried out the attempted lynching, it will be necessary to impose a very heavy punishment on them.”
