Israel on Thursday demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian accused of masterminding the killing of a Jewish settler couple, the army said.
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A police statement did not say how many suspects were in custody. It said a court order banning disclosure of their names and other details of the case remained in effect.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld identified the assailant as a 21-year-old Palestinian from the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Two Israelis, including a soldier, were reportedly injured in the alleged shooting.
Israel’s security services believe that the movement on these cases may help reassure Palestinians that violence by Israeli settlers will not go unpunished, according to the Ma’ariv newspaper, and could help to calm the current violence.
Israel is now struggling to contain near-daily Palestinian attacks that have been ongoing for over two months with no signs of relenting.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has ordered the Shin Bet to issue arrest orders for suspected Jewish terrorists even when incriminating evidence is scant.
The attack on the Dawabshe family led the Israeli government to back administrative detentions of right-wing Jewish activists suspected of involvement in anti-Palestinian terror.
The lack of charges was troubling, Mladenov further noted, urging the Israeli authorities “to move swiftly in bringing the perpetrators of this bad crime to justice”.
On Wednesday Israel destroyed the home of a Palestinian who carried out a deadly car-ramming attack past year, sparking clashes in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood where he had lived.
In Thursday’s shooting attack, the military said a Palestinian got out of a vehicle and opened fire near the West Bank village of Hizme, on Jerusalem’s northern outskirts. Most of the attackers in the recent violence have been young Palestinians, including teenagers.
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Since the start of October, 105 people have been killed on the Palestinian side, including an Arab Israeli, while 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean have died.
