Israel Border Police and Jerusalem district police arrested 74 illegal residents and two suspects accused of housing them during a large-scale overnight operation in the Beit Safafa neighborhood of Jerusalem, police said. The suspects are a father and son from the neighborhood. The sweep targeted illegal residency following intelligence on their presence.
Overnight Wednesday, Israel Border Police (Magav) and Jerusalem district police arrested 74 illegal residents and two suspects in Beit Safafa, Jerusalem, according to a police statement. Officers acted on intelligence and raided multiple focal points in the neighborhood, including a construction site where 22 of the detainees were found; the remaining 52 were located in a building suspected of being used to illegally house them. The two suspects—a father and son, residents of Beit Safafa—are alleged to have provided lodging to the illegal entrants. Most of the detainees are residents of Yatta in Judea and Samaria.
As The Zioneer reported earlier Wednesday (12:44 Jerusalem), a similar sweep in the same neighborhood yielded identical results—74 arrestees and two employers—indicating that police have released a single official statement summarizing the operation, not two separate raids. The earlier bulletin reported the same event based on initial police communication; this bulletin confirms the full operational summary.
The operation is part of an ongoing enforcement campaign by Jerusalem district police and the Border Police against illegal residency, which has included a series of similar sweeps in Beit Safafa, Beit Hanina, Ramla, and elsewhere in recent weeks.
2 developments
- DevelopingBorder Police Arrest 7 Illegal Residents in Beit Hanina
- StrongBorder Police arrest 70+ Palestinians in Ramla building, including illegal entrants
- StrongBorder police, Jerusalem police thwart smuggling of 8 illegal residents hidden in commercial vehicle
- StrongTwo Arabs arrested on suspicion of indecent acts in Tel Aviv, one an illegal entrant from Hawara
Source and signal
- Internal intake