A 13-year-old Palestinian opened fire in east Jerusalem on Saturday, injuring two people, Israeli authorities said, a day after another assailant killed seven people outside a synagogue in the deadliest attack in the city since 2008. .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet on Saturday night to discuss the outbreak of violence, which followed a deadly Israeli military incursion into the West Bank, a barrage of missiles from the Gaza Strip and a series of airstrikes. Israelis in the blockaded territory. He is expected to announce a series of punitive measures against the Palestinians in the evening.
Opening the meeting, he said his government’s response would be “strong, fast and precise.”
He vowed to speed up procedures to seal off and destroy the attackers’ homes, make it easier for Israeli civilians to obtain weapons permits and punish the families of Palestinian attackers by cutting them off from social security and health benefits.
“We are not looking for an escalation, but we are prepared for any scenario,” he said.
The attack in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in east Jerusalem, near the historic Old City, injured a father and his son, ages 47 and 23, according to paramedics. Both were conscious and were hospitalized in mild to serious condition, they added.
As police proceeded to the scene, two witnesses fired their service weapons and subdued the teen, police said, confiscating his gun and taking him to hospital for his injuries.
Video showed officers escorting the minor, clad only in underwear, away from the scene and onto a gurney, his hands handcuffed behind his back. Authorities cordoned off the site of the attack and emergency vehicles and security force agents surrounded the site while helicopters hovered overhead.
“He waited to ambush civilians on the holy day of the Sabbath,” Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne told The Associated Press, adding that the teenager shot a group of five civilians. Security footage showed the victims were observant Jews, wearing kipas and tzitzits, or ritual knotted tassels.
Elsdunne described a “significant increase” in the level of activity of the Palestinian insurgency in recent days. “The Israeli police will act accordingly,” he added.
The incidents on Saturday — on the eve of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s arrival in the region — raised the possibility of further confrontation in one of the bloodiest months in Israel and the occupied West Bank in years.
On Friday, a Palestinian killed at least seven people, including a 70-year-old woman, in a Jewish settlement with a large ultra-Orthodox population in East Jerusalem. The area was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move the international community does not recognize.
Authorities released the names of four of the victims. They are Asher Natan, 14 years old; Eli Mizrahi, 48, and his wife Natali, 45. The fourth victim was Rafael Ben Eliyahu, 56. The victims’ funerals were scheduled for Saturday night.
The attacks are a crucial test for Israel’s new far-right government. His fiery national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has portrayed himself as an advocate of law and order and grabbed headlines for his promises to crack down even harder on the Palestinians.
The army announced on Saturday the mobilization of another battalion in the West Bank, adding to hundreds of additional soldiers to a detachment already on high alert in the occupied territory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would meet the Security Council on Saturday night, after the Sabbath ends, to discuss the response to the attack near the synagogue. Israeli police launched a security operation early on Saturday.
Security forces entered At-Tur, the East Jerusalem neighborhood of the 21-year-old Palestinian attacker, and arrested 42 family members and neighbors for questioning. Police chief Kobi Shabtai has tightened security throughout the city and ordered officers 12-hour shifts, according to statements, as well as urging people to call a hotline if they see anything suspicious.
Friday’s attack, which occurred as residents observed the Jewish Sabbath, came a day after the Israeli army killed nine Palestinians in the West Bank, prompting shell fire from Gaza and Israeli airstrikes on the coastal enclave in reply.
Although calm appeared to have settled after the limited exchange of fire between Israel and the insurgents in Gaza, tension in East Jerusalem and the West Bank remained high.
Thursday’s raid, the deadliest incursion into the occupied territory since 2002, followed a particularly bloody month in which at least 30 Palestinians — insurgents and civilians — were killed in clashes with Israelis in the West Bank, according to a tally. from The Associated Press.
Israel maintains that most of the deceased were insurgents, but among the victims there are young people who threw stones in protest against the searches, among others.
The Israeli army says the operations are aimed at dismantling insurgent networks and thwarting further attacks, but Palestinians see them as entrenching Israel’s 55-year occupation of the West Bank, which was captured in 1967 along with East Jerusalem and Gaza, the territories they want for their future state.
The perpetrators of the attacks on Friday and Saturday came from East Jerusalem. Palestinians living in that area have permanent resident status, which allows them to work and move freely around Israel, although they cannot vote in general elections. Residence rights can be revoked if you live outside the city for a long period of time or for security reasons.