Tel Aviv, Jan 30, (dpa/GNA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, promised on Sunday to wield a “heavy hand” against terrorists, in response to a pair of gun attacks in East Jerusalem.
Netanyahu spoke after a Palestinian gunman, killed seven people outside a synagogue in the city on Friday night, and an attack on Saturday that left a father and son wounded.
“We are not looking for escalation, but we are prepared for any possibility,” said Netanyahu, whose new far-right government has been in power for a month. “Our answer to terrorism is a heavy hand and a powerful, quick and accurate response.”
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have surged in recent days, raising fears that a spiral of violence could escalate into full-blown war.
In one of Jerusalem’s deadliest attacks in years, a 21-year-old Palestinian opened fire on people, as they came out of a synagogue after prayers on Friday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
A day later, Israeli police said a father and son were shot and wounded by a 13-year-old Palestinian boy, in an ambush on the streets of East Jerusalem.
A spokesman for Hamas, the radical Islamic group that rules the Gaza Strip, described the synagogue attack as “retaliation for the Israeli army’s raid on the Jenin refugee camp.”
On Thursday, Israeli troops killed nine Palestinians and injured 20 more, during raids in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
This brings the number of Palestinians killed in confrontations with the army or in attacks of their own, since the beginning of the year to 33.
Israel says it has intensified raids in the West Bank in recent months, in an attempt to crack down on armed Palestinian militants.
Netanyahu’s security cabinet decided on Saturday evening on a series of steps “to fight terrorism and make terrorists and their supporters pay a price,” a statement said.
The residence of an attacker is to be sealed off immediately in the future, before likely being demolished. Israel also wants to deprive relatives who support terror, of social welfare rights.
Israeli security forces, then sealed off the family home of the synagogue attacker on Sunday in the Arab-majority neighbourhood of A-Tur in East Jerusalem.
More than 40 people with alleged ties to the gunman, including family and neighbours, were taken into custody by Israeli police for questioning.
A new law is also being discussed, which would revoke the identity cards of assasins’ relatives.
It was initially unclear whether and how exactly it will be verified, whether someone is a terror supporter. Israeli citizens will also be able to obtain firearms licenses more easily and quickly.
On Sunday, the army decided to deploy two companies to Jerusalem and to towns near the West Bank, to reinforce the police. The police are on high alert for fear of new attacks.
Moreover, Netanyahu decided to take steps to “strengthen” Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land Israel conquered in 1967. More than 600,000 Israeli settlers live there today.
The Palestinians claim these territories for a hoped-for future independent state, that has East Jerusalem as its capital.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis called on Israel and the Palestinians to end the violence.
“I appeal to the two governments and the international community to find immediately and without hesitation, other paths to dialogue, and the sincere search for peace,” the pontiff told the faithful in St Peter’s Square in Rome, after Sunday’s Angelus prayer.
He said he had learned “with great pain” of the recent acts of violence, mentioning the raid in Jenin and the synagogue attack.
GNA