Yerushalayim Flashpoint Neighborhoods Get Security Upgrade

YERUSHALAYIM

The 40,000 residents of the Yerushalayim neighborhood of Gilo will receive more police protection as part of a billion-shekel program to boost security in flashpoint areas in the capital, The Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.

The program calls for six new police stations and 1,200 more officers in both Jewish and Arab sections, including Jabel Mukaber, Isawiya, Beit Safafa, A-Tur, Shuafat, and Sur Baher. That would raise the number from the current 3,500 to 4,700 in those areas, more than ever before.

Police said they plan to construct a command center and install 775 CCTV surveillance cameras in Gilo, in the south of the city, over the Green Line.

“The center is being set up in order to give us a perimeter of all the activities taking place in Gilo,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

“Ultimately, the idea is to expand and link up all the different CCTV surveillance systems in Yerushalayim and have them under one umbrella at this command and information center — which is similar to Mabat 2000, the center we presently have in the Old City to monitor all activity there in real time,” explained Rosenfeld.

Both terrorism and ordinary crime will be addressed by the new program.

Meanwhile, overnight Monday, Border Police raided an explosives laboratory in the northern Yerushalayim Abu Dis neighborhood.

The site was believed to be the source of over 30 pipe bombs that were thrown at security personnel since the beginning of the year.

Two suspects were arrested for attacking officers in previous incidents and throwing the explosive devices.

Components and charges were also found in the laboratory and confiscated.

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