Israel’s cancellation of entry permits for Palestinians following a deadly attack in Tel Aviv may amount to collective punishment, which is banned under global law, according to the office of the UN’s top human rights official.
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Police are on high alert in Jerusalem as thousands of Palestinians are expected for prayers on the first Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The violence has declined in recent weeks, though attacks have continued. After addressing reporters, Netanyahu remained in the Max Brenner restaurant and chatted with diners. The military says the deployment included “hundreds” of troops, but gave no further details.
They also canceled the work permits of 204 of the suspected attackers’ relatives, who had to enter the occupied territories for work.
Israel is also sending two additional battalions into the West Bank.
Among the measures, the government said it was revoking entry permits for more than 80,000 Palestinians to visit relatives in Israel during Ramadan.
COGAT, an Israeli defense body, said Thursday that 83,000 permits have been frozen for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to visit family in Israel, attend Ramadan prayers in Jerusalem or travel overseas via Israel’s Tel Aviv airport.
Officials believe the attacks, mostly stabbings, vehicle rammings and shootings, have been carried out by assailants acting on their own with primitive weapons, making them hard to predict or stop.
Two Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis in the shooting at a popular Tel Aviv tourist spot Wednesday night.
The policy is backed by Israeli hawks as a deterrent measure.
Police identified the victims as Michael Feige, a 58-year-old sociologist and anthropologist at Ben-Gurion University, and Ido Ben Ari, a 42-year-old veteran of an elite army unit who was an executive at The Coca-Cola Co.’s Israel branch.
“The leaders we elect at democratic elections are supposed to find a strategic solution, which demands far-reaching vision, concessions, a creative solution, and not mantras and laundered words”, the father, whose name was not published, said at the funeral in Yavne, which was attended by hundreds.
In Yatta, Ahmad Mussa Mahmara, the father of one of the attackers, said his son has two uncles serving life sentences in Israeli prison.
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The Lebanese militant Hezbollah group has praised the deadly attack in Tel Aviv as a “heroic” act.
