Factors driving the violence include Palestinian bitterness over stalled statehood negotiations and the growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, increased Jewish access to a disputed Jerusalem shrine and Islamist-led calls for Israel’s destruction. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were attackers, with the rest killed in clashes with security forces.
Advertisement
Gaza: An official of the Islamic Hamas movement said on Wednesday that a committee has been formed to deal with the issue of the Israeli soldiers held by the group. “There is still two people injured in the hospital that we want to question, they are still receiving medical treatment and at the moment, heightened security is continuing across Jerusalem with police patrolling different areas to prevent and respond to any possible incidents or terrorist attacks”. None were injured in the home attacks, the Shin Bet said. It said Israel would indict the suspects. Forces tried to disperse the crowd, then fired live bullets at demonstrators. He said he was in a traffic jam when “suddenly there was an explosion in the back, I immediately understood it was a terror attack, I opened the doors of the bus so people could escape and told them to get out”.
Israeli authorities have placed a ban on Israeli media reporting details of the attack, and have not commented on the link.
Palestinians threw rocks and firebombs at Israeli forces during the demolition, the military said. At least 189 Palestinians have also been killed.
In a speech hours afterwards, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked the attack to a six-month-old wave of Palestinian street violence.
The shuttering of some three dozen quarries south of the West Bank city of Hebron could have devastating effects on the local Palestinian villages, according to an worldwide monitor.
Advertisement
The occupied territories have been the scene of escalating tensions since August 2015, when Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
