Israel announces series of measures against Palestinians after attacks
Jerusalem, Jan 29 (EFE).- Israel’s government has announced a raft of measures in response two separate shootings over the weekend that left at least seven Israelis dead and five others wounded in East Jerusalem.
The cabinet decided “on a series of steps to fight terrorism and exact a price from terrorists and those who support them,” prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Sunday.
The measures will see Palestinian attackers’ family members revoked of social security and health benefits if they “support terrorism”, and make it easier for Israeli citizens to carry firearms.
Later on Sunday, the cabinet is also set to discuss a bill on the “revocation of Israeli identity cards of the families of terrorists that support terrorism,” an initiative already promoted by the government’s far-right members.
While details of that legislation have not been released yet, the measures would force Palestinians living in East Jerusalem with Israeli residency to relocate to the occupied West Bank.
Other measures include sealing off the family homes of the Palestinian gunmen ahead of demolition, reinforcing military and police units, and expanding arrests and operations to confiscate illegal weapons.
On Friday, a Palestinian man was shot dead after he killed seven Israelis and wounded several others as they were leaving a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov settlement in East Jerusalem, the deadliest incident on Israeli soil in over a decade.
The next day, two people were wounded after a 13-year-old Palestinian opened fire in East Jerusalem.
In separate incidents Saturday night, a Palestinian opened fire on a restaurant in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, while another armed man was shot dead by settlers as he tried to enter the Kedumim settlement, also in the West Bank.
Those attacks came after 10 Palestinians were killed and several others injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank on Thursday, with nine of those deaths coming in a single raid in Jenin, a stronghold for Palestinian militias.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been on the rise since a series of deadly attacks last year, which saw more than 150 Palestinians and over 20 Israelis killed.
There have been 32 fatalities in the West Bank so far this year. EFE
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