Over 30 armed provocateurs wearing ski masks and some carrying lethal weapons attacked a group of Armenian bishops, priests, deacons, and other citizens on Thursday morning in the Old City of Jerusalem, according to the Armenian Patriarchate.
“A mass and coordinated physical attack was launched,” the Patriarchate wrote in an official letter to the Police and Israeli government, which The Jerusalem Post reviewed. “Several priests, students, and indigenous Armenians are seriously injured.”
“They literally attacked us,” Bishop Koryoun Baghdasaryan, director of the Real Estate Department for the Patriarchate,
The Police confirmed that it received the letter and said that arrests were made on both sides – both Armenians and Muslims who allegedly carried out the attack. No one has been officially charged, the Police said.
“There was an unfortunate incident where some Arab Muslim men and some men from the Armenian community got into a brawl in the old city of Jerusalem,” Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum told the Post. “Police came promptly to separate the parties, and arrests were made on both sides.
“The city of Jerusalem will not tolerate any criminal activity, whether religiously motivated or otherwise, and the police will prosecute those responsible,” she said.