Israel is beefing up its settlements after recent shooting attacks
The IDF soldier killed at the Shuafat checkpoint: Defense Forces and Border Guard Searches in the Shoahut-Abelian Zone
“Overnight, an IDF soldier was killed as a result of being critically injured by a shooting attack at the Shu’afat checkpoint,” the army said in the statement. “The solider was evacuated to a hospital for further medical treatment, where she was declared dead. We express our heartfelt condolences to the family.”
A suspect arrived at the Shuafat crossing and opened fire at the security forces, while a shot was fired from a passing vehicle. Border Guard forces are searching for the suspects.”
Two people were taken to the hospital, one of which was in serious condition, and the other of whom was in mild condition.
The checkpoint is near the Shuafat refugee camp, which is considered by most of the international community to be an area occupied by the international community.
In a statement, Prime Minister Yair Lapid called the situation “serious” and said “many forces are deployed in the field and work day and night to protect the citizens of Israel. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families. Terror will not defeat us, we are strong, even on this difficult evening.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/08/world/violent-weekend-west-bank/index.html
On the incident of Adel Ibrahim Daoud, 14, who was shot on Friday at the separation wall between Israel and the West Bank, Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA
The youngest was 14-year-old Adel Ibrahim Daoud, shot on Friday near the separation wall between Israel and the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said, according to Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA.
When asked for comment about Daoud’s death, the Israel Defense Forces said “during IDF routine operational activity, IDF soldiers spotted a suspect who hurled Molotov cocktails at them adjacent to the city of Qalqilya. The soldiers responded with live fire. A hit was identified. The incident is being reviewed.
Dozens of Palestinians threw Molotov cocktails at the soldiers, and shots were fired at them. The soldiers opened fire towards the armed suspects. Hits were identified.”
On Saturday, two 17-year-old Palestinians were killed during an Israeli military operation in the Jenin refugee camp, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
The IDF said forces were in the Jenin refugee camp to arrest an “Islamic Jihad operative” who it claims was “involved in terrorist activities, planning and carrying out shooting attacks towards IDF soldiers in the area.”
In a statement, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said he is “alarmed by the deteriorating security situation, including the rise in armed clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
In the occupied West Bank, Israel has been raiding cities in an attempt to stop militant groups from moving to Israel and carrying out attacks. The IDF launched the operation after a number of attacks on Israelis. In the first nine months of this year, at least 20 Israelis and foreigners have been killed in attacks in Israel and the West Bank.
“The mounting violence in the occupied West Bank is fueling a climate of fear, hatred and anger. It is crucial to reduce tensions immediately to open the space for crucial initiatives aimed at establishing a viable political horizon,” Wennesland said.
Two bombs went off in Jerusalem during the morning rush hour on Wednesday, one of which was blamed on Palestinians and killed a teen Canadian and injured 18 other people.
The victim was identified as Aryeh Shechopek, a teenager who was heading to a Jewish seminary when the blast went off, according to a notice announcing his death. Shechopek was also a Canadian citizen, according to Canada’s Ambassador to Israel Lisa Stadelbauer. There were conflicting reports about Shechopek’s age.
The Israeli teen was wounded in a car accident and taken to a hospital in Jenin. The teenager was from Israel’s Druze minority. The father said the militant took him while still alive and disconnected his hospital equipment. The Israeli military said the young man was already dead when he was taken.
Israeli National Security Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the First Exit from Gaza: Hamas, Israel, and the IRAS Blast-Outburst
As Benjamin Netanyahu is holding coalition talks after the elections, he is likely to return to power as Israel’s most right-wing government ever.
Young Israelis chanting “death to terrorists” greeted Israel’s far right national security minister during his visit to the scene of the attack. He said he was going to push for legislation to institute the death penalty against convicted attackers and set up police checkpoints to inspect Palestinians entering and leaving their neighborhoods.
“We must exact a price from terror,” he said at the scene of the first explosion. “We need to return to being in control of Israel, to deter terror.”
Police, who were searching for the suspected attackers, said their initial findings showed that shrapnel-laden explosive devices were placed at the two sites. The twin blasts occurred amid the buzz of rush hour traffic and police briefly closed part of a main highway leading out of the city, where the first explosion went off. Video from shortly after the initial blast showed debris strewn along the sidewalk as the wail of ambulances blared. There were pieces of a bus that looked like missiles in Ramot.
The medic who was at the scene when the first blast occurred spoke to Israeli Army Radio. People were bleeding all over the place.
While Palestinians have carried out stabbings, car rammings and shootings in recent years, bombing attacks have become very rare since the end of a Palestinian uprising nearly two decades ago.
The Islamic militant Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and once carried out suicide bombings against Israelis, praised the perpetrators of the attacks, calling it a heroic operation, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
Israel said it was closing the two West Bank crossing to Palestinians in response to the blasts.
The shooting of the 14-year-old Yisraeli teen and the threat to the creation of a future independent state on the Gazan border
“It was something horrendous. It was something that was inhumane,” Husam Ferro, the teen’s father, told Israeli news site YNet. “He was still alive and they took him in front of my eyes and I couldn’t do anything.”
The leader of the Druze community told YNet that they were talking about the body’s return to the family. Palestinian militants have in the past carried out kidnappings to seek concessions from Israel. Lapid said the militants would “pay a heavy price” if the body was not returned.
On Sunday, the military released a photo of a gun that it claimed was the one a Palestinian was holding when he was shot by security guards in Kedumim. There were no further details on the incident or the alleged attacker’s condition.
The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future independent state. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem in a step that is not internationally recognized and considers the entire city to be its undivided capital.
Israel would take new steps to “strengthen the settlements” this week in response to the public celebrations over the attack. It didn’t give any more information.
The Secretary of State is going to visit the U.S. next week and the announcement casts a cloud over it.
Netanyahu’s office said the Security Cabinet agreed to seal off the attacker’s home immediately ahead of its demolition. It will make it easier for Israelis to get gun licenses and increase efforts to collect illegal weapons, as well as canceling social security benefits for the families of attackers.
There was no immediate response from Washington. The Biden administration, which condemned the shooting, opposes settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank — lands sought by the Palestinians for a future state. The topic is going to be high on the agenda when Blinken arrives Monday.
Netanyahu could be under pressure to take even harsher measures because of the religious politicians in his government. Such steps could risk triggering more violence and potentially drag in the Hamas militant group in Gaza.
Amos Harel, a defense affairs commentator wrote that it would need the deployment of troops and carefully managing the crisis without being led to revenge if it was possible to put this genie back into the bottle.
Israeli Israel is moving to strengthen settlements after shooting attacks: An Israeli TV crew witnessed Friday night’s shooting with seven killed and three wounded on the Jewish Sabbath
Friday’s shooting, outside a synagogue in east Jerusalem on the Jewish Sabbath, left seven Israelis dead and three wounded before the gunman was killed by police. It was the worst attack against Israelis in 15 years.
The four victims names were published by authorities. They included Asher Natan, Eli Mizrahi and his wife Natali, and Rafael Ben Eliyahu. Funerals for some victims were scheduled Saturday night.
Mourners lit memorial candles near the synagogue on Saturday evening, and in a sign of the charged atmosphere, a crowd assaulted an Israeli TV crew that came to the area, chanting “leftists go home.”
Ella Sakovich, an aunt of Natali Mizrahi, said that her niece had been celebrating the Jewish Sabbath with her husband and his father when they heard gunfire outside on Friday night.
Sakovich said in a statement that Natali Mizrahi and her husband went out of their house to treat the wounded and shot both of them.
In response to the shooting, Israeli police beefed up activities throughout east Jerusalem and said they had arrested 42 people, including family members, who were connected to the shooter.
As police rushed to the scene, two passers-by with licensed weapons shot and overpowered the 13-year-old attacker, police said. The wounded teen was taken to the hospital by police.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/29/1152383010/israel-is-moving-to-strengthen-settlements-after-shooting-attacks
Ben-Gvir, the New Interior Minister, and the Palestinians in the Context of Friday Night’s Intelligence in Jenin
The deputy secretary of state is expected to land in Israel on Monday. The Biden administration condemned Friday night’s shooting and called for calm on all sides, but gave no details on how it would promote these goals.
Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem hold permanent residency status, allowing them to work and move freely throughout Israel, but they suffer from subpar public services and are not allowed to vote in national elections.
Israel’s new firebrand minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has presented himself as an enforcer of law and order and grabbed headlines for his promises to take even stronger action against the Palestinians.
Speaking to reporters at a hospital where victims were being treated, Ben-Gvir said he wanted the home of the gunman in Friday’s attack to be sealed off immediately as a punitive measure and lashed out at Israel’s attorney general for delaying his order.
The new government says unelected judges have overwhelming powers in Israel’s justice system and wants to change it.
The weekly protests in Israel were sparked by the issue of the proposed changes to the Supreme Court.
Tens of thousands of people attended a new protest in the central city of Tel Aviv. Some banners said Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir were a threat to world peace.
The Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, meanwhile, upheld its decision to halt security coordination with Israel to protest the deadly raid in Jenin.
After a meeting headed by President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority called on international community and the U.S. administration to force Israel to halt its raids in the West Bank.
In the context of this attack and other violence, it is important that the government and people of Israel know America’s commitment to their security remains ironclad. It is backed up by 75 years of U.S. support. America’s commitment has never waivered, and never will.”
Two Israelis and two Palestinians killed in a Palestinian rammed into them outside a synagogue outside Israel’s outskirts
At least two people were killed and many others were wounded when a Palestinian rammed his car into them outside a Jerusalem synagogue. This comes two weeks after a spike in attacks between Palestinians and Israelis.
Police say an off-duty policeman shot and killed the driver. Israeli media said he was from the Palestinian neighborhood Issawiyeh in East Jerusalem.
