Two of the alleged assailants in the attacks on Israelis over the past two weeks were Israeli Arabs.
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A shoot-to-kill policy, among other illegal and draconian measures, have been adopted by the Israeli government in an attempt to violently suppress this mostly spontaneous popular revolt led by a new generation of Palestinians.
A few warn that recent events – a rise in “lone wolf” attacks by Palestinians and Israeli crackdowns – offer a taste of the constant hate-filled skirmishes that would likely prevail for years if there’s no deal on setting up Palestine next to Israel.
Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan said: “The worldwide community has a duty to fight against and stop the phenomenon of sedition and encouragement of terrorism by the heads of the Palestinian Authority'”.
Domestic critics say Netanyahu – long opposed to any negotiated partition of Jerusalem into two capitals – is effectively dividing the city along ethnic lines with his security measures.
The attack on Sunday night at a bus station in the southern city saw a gunman armed with a knife kill a 19-year-old soldier and wound around 10 other people.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said there would be an investigation to determine who was involved in the beating. Four of the attackers were shot and killed by police.
As paramedics tried to evacuate him, the crowd chanted “death to Arabs”, “Arabs out!” and “Am Israel Hai” (“The people of Israel still live”) and tried to prevent his evacuation.
The attack on the Central Bus Station in Beersheva came on Sunday evening. When the group arrived, they were confronted by Palestinians and violent clashes erupted.
He also told security forces to impose partial closures on Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem according to security needs, a move criticized by human rights groups as collective punishment. Many Palestinians leaders, many Palestinian factions are calling on the Palestinians to keep these protests as peaceful…as much as they can but it seems to me whether that is going to be a third Intifada or not, that will depend on the length of this protests and the coming of a Palestinian leadership who are going to organize direct and embrace these protests against the Israeli army.
Israeli police say they have set up a concrete barrier between a Jewish and an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem amid soaring tensions.
The Israeli security agency Shin Bet said Monday the attacker had no past record of involvement in militant activity. But it caused outrage at a meeting of Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Sunday, political officials said, because it was seen as essentially dividing Jerusalem. Mr Kerry also plans to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. To offer concessions in response to the Palestinian attacks would only encourage more attacks. Gaza has been the site of three wars with Israel since 2008, but it has remained mainly calm amid the current unrest in Israel and the West Bank.
“Israel understands the importance of the status quo and… our objective is to make sure that everyone understands what that means”, Kerry told a news conference in Madrid.
The latest developments in a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence (all times local).
“Israel can not accept the French draft resolution at the UN Security Council”, Netanyahu said.
“People are struggling because of the violence”, de Blasio said, describing the attacks on civilians as “unconscionable and unacceptable according to all our values and it is something that must end”. He also met Israeli stabbing victims at a hospital as well as children studying at a mixed Israeli-Palestinian school.
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The bodies of 15 slain Palestinians have been withheld by the IOA, including those of 11 Jerusalemites and four West Bankers.
