Following the recent violence in the city and the increasing rocket strikes in the south and center of Israel, the Israeli police have issued a curfew for the city of Lod. Over the past few days, violent riots have crippled the city and the police have been unable to cope with the throngs of Arab rioters that have been rampaging through the city on a nightly basis.

The decision to implement the curfew, which is essentially locking down the entire city, was made by the Police Commissioner of the central command region Moshe Barkat. The curfew will be in place from 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday night until 4:00 a.m. Thursday morning.

According to the rules of the curfew, it is prohibited for any person to be in a public space anywhere in the city. No person is allowed to leave their homes or wherever they are staying in the city during the curfew for any reason. It is also prohibited for any person to enter the city.

The main goal of the curfew is to prevent the riots that have taken place over the past few days, the most violent of which took place last night.

On Tuesday night, Arab youngsters rioted and torched shuls, schools, stores, public buildings, cars, and businesses throughout the city. One Jewish man in his 50s was seriously injured and taken to the hospital with a serious head injury.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, “we have declared a special state of emergency in the city of Lod and Border Police units from Judea and Samaria are being brought in and will be spread throughout the city tonight. They have been instructed to deal with anyone breaking the curfew with a heavy hand in an effort to restore the peace to the city and throughout the rest of Israel.”

Interior Security Minister Amir Ohana said: “We have declared a special civilian state of emergency in Lod tonight. We will do whatever is necessary to restore law and order to the city and in general. After a security briefing, we enlisted 16 Border Police Reserve Units and dispatched border police units who were previously stationed in Judea and Samaria to the city to enforce the curfew.”