Damaged graves at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem. Photo: Amelia Katzen.

JNS.org – The Jerusalem Central Investigative Unit of the Israel Police on Monday arrested three Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem’s A-Tor neighborhood who are suspected of vandalizing Jewish gravestones on the Mount of Olives.

The police launched the investigation after dozens of headstones were smashed. The oldest suspect, a 22-year-old man, denied the allegations of vandalism, while two youths ages 15 and 12 admitted to damaging the gravestones. Investigators were told that the suspects used concrete blocks and stone fragments to break the gravestones, Israel Hayom reported.

In late September, a police source reported that some headstones at the Mount of Olives had been severely damaged, “as if someone had tried to shatter the entire grave.”