Israeli police arrest 51 Palestinians in East Jerusalem

By Kaamil Ahmed

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli police rounded up 51 Palestinians in an occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood in overnight raids Sunday, police said in a statement.

Police accused the arrested, from the Issawiya area of Jerusalem, of throwing rocks and petrol bombs at Israeli armed forces.

While Israeli forces routinely make overnight arrests in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, these overnight raids focused on a single neighborhood have been considered larger than usual.

According to Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer, there are more than 6,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisoners -- 300 of them are children.